Speaking of Quaker Testimonies, the Friends General Conference of The Religious Society of Friends has written:

Testimonies are actions, or they are meaningless, so they need to become habits, the products of reflection and conscious choice which become second nature to us. To believe in equality requires making egalitarian behavior habitual. Believing in justice means acting justly as a habit. We see how in home life, school life, and the company of others, children learn the habits which make them caring, tender toward others, respectful of the natural world. We see them as they grow older and encounter more complex situations, exposed to a wider range of acquaintances, differing points of view, pressures and temptations, testing the habits they have learned against these new realities. Kim Hays reminds us that a tradition, to remain alive, has to undergo continual translation and continual challenge and debate. So we want our schools both to guard our children and to expose them to challenge and even some kinds of risk. We want our children to be able to live in the world of work and politics, the world where injustice and violence apparently rule, and neither retreat nor surrender their deepest convictions. We want them to learn how to love, with clear eyes and critical intelligence, the best in this society and in the people who live close around us. Friends General Conference Fall 2001