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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.

Tutu Desmond

I do believe there are monstrous and evil acts, but I do not believe those who commit such acts are monsters or evil.
TUTU DESMOND

Act Believe Commitment Deep Evil Philosophy
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

Break Healing Hurt Repair Responsibility Togetherness
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.
TUTU DESMOND

Accountable Eyes Forgiveness Philosophy Responsibility
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 DESMOND

Community Human Life Myself Person Philosophy
We are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know.
TUTU DESMOND

Beautiful Friendship Good Love Togetherness World
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
Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
TUTU DESMOND

Good Philosophy Togetherness World 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
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
We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.
TUTU DESMOND

Break Hard Heart Broken Philosophy
We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy.
TUTU DESMOND

Discover Joy Philosophy Possible True Weakness
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
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
You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.
TUTU DESMOND

Deep Family God Yourself
We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.
TUTU DESMOND

Love Philosophy Plant
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone’s back.
TUTU DESMOND

Deep Hurt Religion

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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Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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