We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.
TUTU DESMONDIf 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.
More Tutu Desmond Quotes
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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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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.
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Though wrong gratifies in the moment, good yields its gifts over a lifetime.
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Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.
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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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Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.
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Transformation begins in you, wherever you are, whatever has happened, however you are suffering. Transformation is always possible.
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Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
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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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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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If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
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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.
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Within every hopeless situation and every seemingly hopeless person lies the possibility of transformation
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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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Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak.
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