“Conscience is not the infallible voice of truth, of the moral law, of God, or of anything else, but only man’s ability to hear this voice. This inner ear of man is, however, just as much subject to error as his physical ear.”
“May we look upon our treasures, and the furniture of our houses, and the garments in which we array ourselves, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions, or not.”
“I think that we must first, and always, adhere firmly to the view that the right way is there to be found. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.’ Yet we shall not always find the right way. ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ How do we love ourselves?”
“In 1877, Quaker Oats registered as the first trademark for a breakfast cereal. The trademark was registered with the U.S. Patent Office as ‘a figure of a man in “Quaker garb.”‘ Both former owners, Henry Seymour and William Heston, claimed to have selected the Quaker name as a symbol of good quality and honest value.”
“Integrity is one of the virtues for which Quakers in the past have been praised. It is a quality worth having, but it is doubtful if it can be reached by self-conscious effort or by adherence to a principle… Integrity is a condition in which a person’s response to a total situation can be trusted: the opposite of a condition in which he would be moved by opportunist or self-seeking impulses breaking up his unity as a whole being.”
“Grant, in characteristic Christian fashion, offered the agent an apple, but he declined because he was “on duty.” The agent turned out to be a Baptist which led to much discussion on the duties of a Christian. When Grant was The judge, however, did not accept this viewpoint. He was quite willing to tolerate failure to rise and plain clothes, but not the failure to observe hat honor. turned over to the U.S. Marshal, the agent finally accepted an apple because he was no longer “on duty.” At the sentencing he spoke up to mention Grant’s letter of nonregistration to the draft board to show the judge that Grant did not evade detection for violating the Selective Service law, but publicly refused to register for reasons of conscience.”
“Integrity calls for obedience, or if you prefer, faithfulness to conscience illuminated by the Light Within… It is truth which may well have objective validity, as I believe it does, but if it is not truth which is internalized in each of us, and for which we take ownership, then it is not truth which is valid and binding for us…”
“Liam took a knee as his Cub Scout troupe led the Durham City Council in the pledge of allegiance.”
“God is reality, that which is; nonviolence, that which holds back from hurt; love, that which goes out to others; pure wisdom, that which is free of outward schemes. He is that power which the apostle John called Truth – that name so profound and yet so incomplete, which embraces all the others, which suggests the eternal inward fact and order and aim of all life. To mean the words the Power of Truth is to mean the very source and strength of all that exists.”
“Everywhere you go, if you see injustice, you take it on. [Decades ago, as a child,] I went to the local public school. At that time, teachers were allowed to hit students, and I thought that was just wrong. So I was in first or second grade. I’m a Quaker; I believe in nonviolence. There’s no way it should be acceptable for a teacher to hit their students. And so I refused to go to school. My parents said, ‘That’s totally legitimate.'”
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