The difference between happiness and joy
“The silence we value is not the mere outward silence of the lips. It is a deep quietness of heart and mind, a laying aside of all preoccupation with passing things — yes, even with the workings of our own minds; a resolute fixing of the heart upon that which is unchangeable and eternal.”
— Elise Boulding, 1956
Quaker scholar of peace
Reader Responses
What reading would you recommend to someone new to Quakerism?
Hundreds of Daily Quaker Message readers reached out to share their favorite readings and resources! Below is a list of the most-recommended titles, in order of popularity:
- The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga — Jan de Hartog
- Thee Quaker Podcast
- Godless for God’s Sake: Nontheism in Contemporary Quakerism — David Boulton
- Works by Parker Palmer
- A Testament of Devotion — Thomas R. Kelly
- Walking in the World as a Friend — Nadine Hoover
- Friends for 350 Years — Howard H. Brinton
- The Quaker Way: A Rediscovery; The Light Within: Then and Now; A Light to Live By — Rex Ambler
- Four Doors to Meeting for Worship — William Taber
- Holy Silence — Brent Bill
- Essays on the Quaker Vision of Gospel Order — Lloyd Lee Wilson
- Faith and Practice
- The Quiet Rebels — Margaret Hope Bacon
- Quaker Book of Wisdom — Robert Lawrence Smith
- Quaker by Convincement — John Henry Hobart
- An Apology for the True Christian Divinity — Robert Barclay
- Living the Quaker Way: Timeless Wisdom for a Better Life Today — Philip Gulley
- The Journal of George Fox — George Fox
- Catholic Quakerism — Lewis Benson
- Quaker-Shaped Christianity — Mark Russ
- A Light That Is Shining; A Minority of One — Harvey Gillman
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond — Elizabeth George Speare
- Friendly Persuasion (novel and film); The Quaker Reader — Jessamyn West
- Quakers Do What! Why? — Rhiannon Grant
- John Greenleaf Whittier’s poetry
- The Friend magazine
- The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution — Christopher Hill
- The Quaker Quicks series, including What Quakers Believe
- The Spirit of the Quakers — Geoffrey Durham
- Quaker Process for Friends on the Benches — Mathilda Navias
- The People Called Quakers — D. Elton Trueblood
- Our Life Is Love — Marcelle Martin
- A Plain Pathway — Stephen Crisp
- Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans, and the Myth of Racial Justice — Donna McDaniel and Vanessa D. Julye
- Letters to a Fellow Seeker: A Short Introduction to the Quaker Way — Steve Chase
- The Journal of John Woolman — John Woolman
- Rufus Jones Speaks to Our Time — Rufus Jones
- No Cross, No Crown — William Penn
- Works by Stuart Masters
- Works by Elizabeth Watson
- Mysticism — Evelyn Underhill
- The Practice of the Presence of God — Brother Lawrence
- The Bible
- The Ascent of Humanity — Charles Eisenstein
- Holistic Mysticism: The Integrated Spiritual Path of the Quakers — Amos Smith
- Downright Dencey — Caroline Dale Snedeker
- Angel and the Badman — 1947 film directed by James Edward Grant
- Friends Journal
- Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin — John D’Emilio
This Week’s Messages
Mon Oct 12
I felt a secret power among them
“When I came into the silent assemblies of God’s people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart, and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me, and the good raised up, and so I became thus knit and united unto them.” …
Wed Oct 14
Alice Paul on determination
“When you put your hand to the plow you can’t put it down until you reach the end of the row.” …
Thu Oct 15
Let us try what love will do
“We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by love and Information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what love will do: for if men did once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but love gains: and he that forgives first wins the laurel.” …
Fri Oct 16
Four Doors to Meeting for Worship
“I once thought worship was something I do, but for many years now it has seemed as if worship is actually a state of consciousness which I enter, so that I am immersed into a living, invisible stream of reality which has always been present throughout all history. In some mysterious way, this stream unites me with the communion of the saints across the ages and brings me into the presence of the Living Christ, the Word, the Logos written of in the Gospel of John.” …
Sat Oct 17
Give over thine own willing
“Give over thine own willing, give over thy own running, give over thine own desiring to know or be anything and sink down to the seed which God sows in the heart, and let that grow in thee and be in thee and breathe in thee and act in thee; and thou shalt find by sweet experience that the Lord knows that and loves and owns that, and will lead it to the inheritance of Life, which is its portion.” …
Read the source of today’s quote
