Quaker thought is intended to acquaint people with that large body of literature written by Quakers. A new episode is produced weekly by the Ojai Friends Worship, which is under the care of the Santa Barbara Friends Meeting.

The idea for this series came from W. Norman Cooper who was a regular attender of our Worship Group and a member of the Santa Barbara Meeting. Back in the 1980's, Dial-a-Prayers were in vogue. People would phone to hear a prayer played by an answering machine. Cooper changed this to Dial-an-Inspiration and recorded a phone message every day for several years under the auspices of Truth Center, an organization that he founded. He published these messages, one message for each day of the year, in a book entitled Seize the Day.

A few years later, Cooper learned about the Quakers and when he moved from Hollywood to Ojai in 1989, he became a regular attender of the Ojai Friends Worship Group. To help the public become aware of the large body of Quaker Literature, he suggested that the group sponsor a weekly telephone message consisting of a quotation from some Quaker writer. After a while this audio message was added to the website of the Ojai Friends Worship Group, then it was made available as a podcast and now it is also available on the Speaking Truth website.

Most of the messages were recorded by W. Norman Cooper. The sources of his quotations include the Friends Journal, the Friends Bulletin, Faith and Practice of the Pacific Yearly Meeting, Faith and Practice of the Yearly Meeting in Britain and a number of collected writings such as Daily Readings from Quaker Writings Ancient and Modern by Linda Hill Renfer, Daily Readings from Quaker Spirituality by Edward Cell, Quaker Quotations on Faith and Practice by Leonard S. Kenworthy.

Stephen Travis Pope of the Santa Barbara Friends meeting recorded a message about once a month. Although he sometimes quotes other Quakers, his messages are usually based upon vocal ministry he has given at meeting.

Martha Churchyard has recorded messages about once a month from books of Quaker quotations.

A biography of W. Norman Cooper is available from the website of the Santa Barbara Friends Meeting.