We need other human beings in order to be human. I am because other people are. A person is entitled to a stable community life, and the first of these communities is the family.
TUTU DESMONDThere is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.
More Tutu Desmond Quotes
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Forgiveness is simply about understanding that every one of us is both inherently good and inherently flawed.
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Human beings are actually created for the transcendent, for the sublime, for the beautiful, for the truthful, and all of us are given the task of trying to make this world a little more hospitable to these beautiful things.
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If you are setting out to be joyful you are not going to end up being joyful. You’re going to find yourself turned in on yourself. It’s like a flower. You open, you blossom, really because of other people.
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We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy.
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In the end what matters is not how good we are but how good God is. Not how much we love Him but how much He loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t.
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To protect our children, we must talk to them about rape.
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Life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives
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We are not responsible for what breaks us, but we can be responsible for what puts us back together again. Naming the hurt is how we begin to repair our broken parts.
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There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream to find out why they’re falling in.
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Within every hopeless situation and every seemingly hopeless person lies the possibility of transformation
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Forgiveness does not relieve someone of responsibility for what they have done. Forgiveness does not erase accountability. It is not about turning a blind eye or even turning the other cheek.
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Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak.
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Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter — you are just there in front of the fire. You don’t have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.
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I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.
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Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.
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We learn from history that we don’t learn from history.
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Life is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life.
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Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone’s back.
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I do believe there are monstrous and evil acts, but I do not believe those who commit such acts are monsters or evil.
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A person is a person through other persons.
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Dear Child of God, I write these words because we all experience sadness, we all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in the world will ever end.
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Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring.
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Forgiveness is truly the grace by which we enable another person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew.
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If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. There’s nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible.
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Out of the cacophony of random suffering and chaos that can mark human life, the life artist sees or creates a symphony of meaning and order.
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When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.
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