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Desmond Tutu Quotes - Page 12

All Quotes Abuse Accidents Age Apartheid Caring Challenges Children Choices Christ Church Commitment Community Compassion Competition Conflict Country Death Penalty Dignity Diversity Earth Empathy Energy Environment Evil Failing Family Fighting Forgiveness Freedom Fun Future Gaza Generosity Giving God Goodness Grace Hate Healing Heart Heaven Hell Holocaust Home Humanity Humility Hurt Injustice Insecurity Inspirational Inspiring Jesus Justice Justification Laughter Life Lifetime Lying Memories Mercy Military Nursing Opportunity Pain Past Peace Politics Pope Poverty Prophet Quality Racism Reality Reconciliation Religion Revenge Risk Running Sin Slavery Suffering Unity Universe Violence Vision Waiting War Water Weakness Wife Worship

As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.

As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.

Evil, Atrocities, Capacity

All of us experience fear, but when we confront and acknowledge it, we are able to turn it into courage. Being courageous does not mean never being scared; it means acting as you know you must even though you are undeniably afraid.

Fear, Mean, Acting

Desmond Tutu (2011). “God Has A Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Times”, p.88, Random House

When a pile of cups is tottering on the edge of the table and you warn that they will crash to the ground, in South Africa you are blamed when that happens.

Tables, Cups, Crash

The New York Times, January 3, 1985.

The only separation the Bible knows is between believers on the one hand and unbelievers on the other. Any other kind of separation, division, disunity is of the devil. It is evil and from sin.

Hands, Evil, Division

Desmond Tutu (1982). “The Divine Intention: Presentation”

We can arrive at better solutions to any problem or pain together, than we can by ourselves. The beauty of the modern age is that you are able to source answers, and sometimes the genius is in the combination of ideas and energy that does not reside in only one person.

Pain, Ideas, Age

South Africa, so utterly improbably, is a beacon of hope in a dark and troubled world.

Dark, World, Beacons

"Truth and reconciliation". BBC's "Focus on Africa", January-March 2000.

In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute - a white skin.

Land, Umpires, White

Guardian Weekly, London, April 8, 1984.

There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.

Waking, Pretending, Difficult

The way God operates is on the basis of love.

Way, Bases

Source: values.mountmadonnaschool.org

One of the greatest gifts we can give to another generation is our experience, our wisdom.

Giving, Generations, Greatest Gifts

We can enjoy a self-assurance that doesn't depend on the state of things outside ourselves, be it downturns or booms or whatever.

Self, States, Enjoy

Source: www.egonzehnder.com

When you think of the sort of things that happen when a genocide happens, it's again not people who are intrinsically evil.

Thinking, People, Evil

Interview with Nick Stadlen, www.theguardian.com. September 26, 2007.

Forgiving is a gift to the forgiver as well as to the perpetrator.

Forgiving, Perpetrators, Wells

Source: jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com

Look at Nelson Mandela. Why did people want to follow him? He's a lousy speaker. If he hadn't got all the other things, you wouldn't spend time listening to him. But people actually don't listen to what he's saying, in a way. They are listening to him because he has communicated that he is ready to put his life on the line.

People, Listening, Looks

Our lives are a response to a love that we already have received.

Response, Our Lives

Source: values.mountmadonnaschool.org

We get most upset with those we love because they are close to us and we know that they are aware of our weaknesses. . . If only we could learn to live with our inadequacies, our frailties, our vulnerabilities, we would not need to try so hard to push away those who really know us.

Love Is, Upset, Trying

A time of crisis is not just a time of anxiety and worry. It gives a chance, an opportunity, to choose well or to choose badly.

Opportunity, Giving, Worry

Desmond Tutu, John Webster (1982). “Bishop Desmond Tutu, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: a collection of his recent statements in the struggle for justice in South Africa”

I suppose being the kind of creatures we [people] are, we like to censor the past, and are selective, or want to be selective about the things that we remember. If you want to destroy people, destroy their memory, destroy their history.

Memories, Past, People

I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth I cannot vote...

Years, Land, Racism

The Guardian, April 8, 1984.

My flock is black, my flock is white. One has got to say to our people, "I love you. I care for you, enormously." And when I care about black liberation, it is because I care about white liberation.

Love You, Race, White

As the victim, you offer the gift of your forgiving to the perpetrator who may or may not appropriate the gift but it has been offered and thereby it liberates the victim.

Forgiving, May, Victim

Source: jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com

There’s no question about the reality of evil, of injustice, of suffering, but at the center of this existence is a heart beating with love. That you and I and all of us are incredible. I mean, we really are remarkable things. That we are, as a matter of fact, made for goodness.

Heart, Mean, Reality

"A God of Surprises". Interview with Krista Tippett, onbeing.org. March 20, 2014.

I have no doubt that in the future, the laws that criminalize human love and commitment will look the way the apartheid laws do to us now, so obviously wrong

Commitment, Law, Doubt

What we try to do as Elders is help those who are trying to change their own societies and communities for the better. We hope that by supporting the good work that is being done, especially at the grass roots, we can help to alleviate the suffering of human beings. That is our core mission - to draw attention to the impact that conflict, injustice and poverty have on ordinary people.

Roots, Impact, People

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

When God grabs you by the scruff of the neck then although theoretically you have a freedom to say 'no', in another sense, actually, you can't say no because it's like Jeremiah. 'God, you have cheated me. You called me to be a prophet against the people that I love, and all that I proclaim is words of doom and judgement.' And yet if I say "I will shut up", I can't.

People, Judgement, Necks

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