Speaking Truth Is the Simplest Way of Leading Your Life
“I have long believed that speaking truth is both the simplest way of leading your life and one of the most difficult to achieve.”
How Quakers Invented the Price Tag
“The Quakers thought charging different people different prices for the same thing was morally wrong. So they did this radical thing. In a Quaker store, they said, ‘Each item has one price. The price is just the price.'”
To Strive for Wholeness Is to Be Vulnerable
“The practice of Integrity is about both self-awareness and wholeness. It is born out of a community of practice committed to living integrated lives. Practices and language develop out of that commitment that gives tools for understanding the self, my relationship to God and other people, the natural world, and material objects. A practice of integrity provides a kind of self-reflective mirror upon which I am invited to look at myself and my community and reflect upon whether my ‘Yes is Yes,’ and my ‘No is No.'”
Let Your “Yes” be “Yes,” and Your “No,” “No”
“Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.”
Living a Life of Integrity
“If we are mindful and self-aware, we recognize in our own lives those moments and places of disconnection. Paul spoke about this in his letter to the Roman community, when he wrote, ‘I don’t understand my own actions. I do not do what I want; I do the very thing I hate.’ We all know that feeling, don’t we? We all experience this disconnection, this lack of integration, and are troubled by it, especially when we notice it in ourselves.”
All Truth Is a Shadow Except the Utmost
“All Truth is a shadow except the last, except the utmost; yet every Truth is true in its kind. It is substance in its own place, though it be but a shadow in another place (for it is but a reflection from an intenser substance); and the shadow is a true shadow, as the substance is a true substance.”
Live Up to the Light That Thou Hast
Live up to the Light, / the Light that thou hast. / Live up to the Truth, / and remember, my child, / you are never alone, / no, never.
John Woolman: He Agreed to Set Her Free.
“A neighbour… desired me to write his will: I took notes, and, amongst other things, he told me to which of his children he gave his young negro: I considered the pain and distress he was in, and knew not how it would end, so I wrote his will, save only that part concerning his slave, and carrying it to his bedside, read it to him, and then told him in a friendly way, that I could not write any instruments by which my fellow-creatures were made slaves, without bringing trouble on my own mind.”
Be Valiant for the Truth Upon the Earth
“Our first task is to love one another, to be valiant for the truth upon the earth, and to remain attentive to the true spirit in all that we do. This task infuses all our lives. It is, indeed, not so much a specific thing to do as a manner in which to do all things. For that reason its importance is likely to be overlooked: we are tempted to rush on past this advice about every little action, about the details of everyday living, in order to get to those tasks that may save the world, or at least change it.”
Quotes on the Quaker Testimony of Integrity
October 2024: With the theme of integrity, we learn from our Quaker ancestors and elders what it means to embody our beliefs consistently in every aspect of our lives. Integrity means honesty and truth-telling, even when those truths are uncomfortable. We dig into the history of refusing to take oaths and doff hats, the invention of the price tag, and other ways Friends have brought their public lives in line with their spiritual convictions.
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