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.
TUTU DESMONDWhen 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.
More Tutu Desmond Quotes
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You show your humanity by how you see yourself not as apart from others but from your connection to others.
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You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.
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A person is a person through other persons.
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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 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.
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I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.
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In the end generosity is the best way of becoming more, more, and more joyful.
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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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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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Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.
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We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.
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We learn from history that we don’t learn from history.
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Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak.
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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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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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