Nesta Nahamya > Nesta's Quotes

“Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

[Address at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 November 2004]”
― Desmond Tutu

“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.”
― Desmond Tutu

“We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.”
― Desmond Tutu

“Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.”
― desmond tutu

“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.”
― Desmond Tutu

“We learn from history that we don't learn from history!”
― Desmond Tutu

“A person is a person through other persons.

None of us comes into the world fully formed. We would not know how to think, or walk, or speak, or behave as human beings unless we learned it from other human beings. 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.”
― desmond tutu

“When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.”
― Desmond Tutu

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
― Desmond Tutu

“A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”
― Desmond Tutu

“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.”
― Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter — you are just there in front of the fire. You don't have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.”
― Desmond Tutu

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river.

We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
― Desmond Tutu

“Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.”
― Desmond Tutu

“We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.”
― Desmond Tutu

“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. I want to share with you my faith and my understanding that this suffering can be transformed and redeemed. There is no such thing as a totally hopeless case. Our God is an expert at dealing with chaos, with brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of disorder, cosmos out of chaos, and God can do so always, can do so now--in our personal lives and in our lives as nations, globally. ... Indeed, God is transforming the world now--through us--because God loves us.”
― Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time

“It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul.”
― Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time

“You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.”
― Desmond Tutu

“Dear Child of God, I am sorry to say that suffering is not optional.”
― Desmond Tutu

“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.”
― Desmond Tutu

“There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.”
― Desmond Tutu

“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.”
― Desmond Tutu

“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.”
― Desmond Tutu

“Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.”
― Desmond Tutu

“The Dead Sea in the Middle East receives fresh water, but it has no outlet, so it doesn't pass the water out. It receives beautiful water from the rivers, and the water goes dank. I mean, it just goes bad. And that's why it is the Dead Sea. It receives and does not give. In the end generosity is the best way of becoming more, more, and more joyful.”
― Desmond Tutu, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“It always comes back to our insecurities, as we say, "Oh, I'm not as good as you." So instead of accepting that perhaps I am not as good as someone else in some ways and being comfortable with who I am as I am, I spend all my time denigrating you, trying to cut you down to my self-perceived size. The sad problem is that we see ourselves as being quite terribly small. Instead of spending my time being envious, I need to celebrate your and my different gifts, even if mine are perhaps less spectacular than yours.”
― Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time

“Much depends on your attitude. If you are filled with negative judgment and anger, then you will feel separate from other people. You will feel lonely. But if you have an open heart and are filled with trust and friendship, even if you are physically alone, even living a hermit’s life, you will never feel lonely.”
― Desmond Tutu, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't.”
― Desmond Tutu

“A very important but difficult piece of renewing relationships is accepting responsibility for our part in any conflict. If we have a relationship in need of repair, we must remember that the wrong is not usually all on one side, and we are more easily able to restore relations when we look at our contribution to a conflict.”
― Desmond Tutu, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World

“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”
― Desmond Tutu