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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.

Tutu Desmond

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.
TUTU DESMOND

Flower Joy People Philosophy Yourself
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
TUTU DESMOND

Eyes Land Oppression Religion War
Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.
TUTU DESMOND

Language Philosophy Power Reality
Life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives
TUTU DESMOND

Deep Experience Human Life Live Philosophy Whole
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.
TUTU DESMOND

Art Human Life Philosophy Suffer
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.
TUTU DESMOND

Justice Oppression People Philosophy Religious Revolution Spiritual
A very important but difficult piece of renewing relationships is accepting responsibility for our part in any conflict.
TUTU DESMOND

Acceptance Difficult Relationship
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.
TUTU DESMOND

Believe End Fail God Good Himself Love Philosophy Spiritual
When we see others as separate, they become a threat. When we see others as part of us, as connected, as interdependent, then there is no challenge we cannot face—together.
TUTU DESMOND

Challenge Connection Philosophy Separate Togetherness Unity
God is transforming the world now–through us–because God loves us.
TUTU DESMOND

God Philosophy Religious Transform World
Within every hopeless situation and every seemingly hopeless person lies the possibility of transformation
TUTU DESMOND

Hope Person Possible Situation Transformation
Forgiving is not forgetting; its actually remembering–remembering and not using your right to hit back. Its a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you dont want to repeat what happened.
TUTU DESMOND

Beginning Forget Forgiveness Philosophy
Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.
TUTU DESMOND

Argument Improvement One Liner Raise Voice Yourself
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.
TUTU DESMOND

Deep Fall People Pull River Stop
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.
TUTU DESMOND

Beautiful Human Truth World
Though wrong gratifies in the moment, good yields its gifts over a lifetime.
TUTU DESMOND

Good Life Moment Wrong

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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