Quotes by Greg Boyle

About Greg Boyle:

Gregory "Greg" Joseph Boyle is an American Jesuit priest. He is the founder and Director of Homeboy Industries and former pastor of Dolores Mission Church.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

People have to see that there is a high degree of complexity about belonging to a gang. It's a symptom, not a problem.

Greg Boyle

In Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world, we have 1,100 gangs and 120,000 gang members so it is a daunting, complex social dilemma.

Greg Boyle

I have never seen a hopeful person join a gang.

Greg Boyle

The wrong idea has taken root in the world. And the idea is this: there just might be lives out there that matter less than other lives.

Greg Boyle

I want to be prophetic and take stands and stand with those on the margins, and I want to laugh as much as I can.

Greg Boyle

The employer is not going to choose the gang member who's just been released from prison: they're going to choose the person with the skills.

Greg Boyle

You are so much more than the worst thing you've ever done.

Greg Boyle

The margins don't get erased by simply insisting that the powers-that-be erase them.

Greg Boyle

There is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us.

Greg Boyle

I'm the priest who has been mistaken for an ATM machine.

Greg Boyle

We need the disruption of categories that lead us to abandon the difficult, the disagreeable, and the least likely to go very far.

Greg Boyle

If you are paying attention, then the day is going to be pretty joyful, and a lot of delight will fill it.

Greg Boyle

We ought not to demonize a single gang member, and we ought not to romanticize a single gang.

Greg Boyle

Homeboy Bakery is an alternative to kids who have found themselves, regrettably, in gangs and want to redirect their lives.

Greg Boyle

Don't forget, you are the hero of your own story.

Greg Boyle

Homeboy Industries has chosen to stand with the 'demonized' so that the demonizing will stop; it stands with the 'disposable' so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.

Greg Boyle

W a gang member, and especially in a Latino gang, gets jumped in, and then he's given a name, and he has that name forever, but it's not so much the name as being called by name.

Greg Boyle

I think not everything that works helps, and not everything that helps works.

Greg Boyle

Most employers just aren't willing to look beyond the dumbest or worst thing someone has done.

Greg Boyle

People have started to see that 'smart on crime' rather than 'tough on crime' makes sense.

Greg Boyle

You don't really get Jesus saying very often there'll be pie in the sky when you die. He's really talking about now and today, and it's supposed to be like that. You're supposed to delight in what's right in front of you.

Greg Boyle

Author Bio

  • NameGreg Boyle
  • DescriptionAmerican Jesuit
  • BornMay 19, 1954