Philip Berrigan > Quotes

“I can't be a man in this society unless I am in opposition to power. So, resistance is always synonymous with humanity.”
― Philip Berrigan, Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary

“I'm not for organizations much - they seem to run people more than people run them.”
― Philip Berrigan, Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary

“Pike tried to harmonize rationalism with his hope, while most Christians tend to superstition in theirs. One is a humanist failing; the other deistic. Both tend to be unfaithful to Christ, who spoke of the last things only in a context dominated by the Judgment: 'For I was hungry and you gave me to eat.' Our Lord, it would seem, wished to emphasize that hope must correspond both to divine sonship and to human brotherhood. To center one's hope in man is to compromise the main expressions of hope - optimism, sacrifice, and death. And to center one's hope in God is to risk egotism, withdrawal, and despair.”
― Philip Berrigan, Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary

“Of this I am at least sure: Hope is nonviolent resistance, rebellion, and revolution. It has always been so, though never hast the lesson been so forcefully taught. And this is hopeful.”
― Philip Berrigan, Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary

“The revolution of blood is a necessary historical process.' The people who say that it is NOT inevitable are the only ones who, to my mind, understand revolution. In other words, the only ones who understand revolution are the ones who say that a nonviolent revolution is possible.”
― Philip Berrigan, Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary