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Every situation of justice is an occasion where someone is being humiliated and they want to restore their dignity. They think, I am a human being and I may not be able to defeat these people or destroy them, but I will hit out at them, because I am not a thing, I am human.

Desmond Tutu

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Desmond Tutu
Age: 92
Born: 1931
Born: October 7
Activist
Anglican Priest
Non-Fiction Writer
Archbisphop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu
Able
Occasions
Human
Destroy
Humans
Defeat
Thing
Dignity
Every
Justice
Think
Situation
Humiliated
Thinking
Someone
Restore
People
May
Occasion

More quotes by Desmond Tutu

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Most of the leading figures of the Old Testament were polygamists. Abraham had several wives and concubines. If they wanted, they could say this was approved in the Bible.
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Too frequently we think we have to do spectacular things. Yet if we remember that the sea is actually made up of drops of water and each drop counts, each one of us can do our little bit where we are. Those little bits can come together and almost overwhelm the world. Each one of us can be an oasis of peace.
Desmond Tutu
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The abolition of the death penalty is making us a civilized society. It shows we actually do mean business when we say we have reverence for life.
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Nothing is too much trouble for Love.
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Goodness is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Light is stronger than darkness. Life is stronger than death. Victory is ours through Him who loved us.
Desmond Tutu
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Sadly, the things that we have set out as being worth striving for are not ultimately the things that satisfy human longings. And why not? Because we are practically the ultimate paradox: the finite made for the infinite.
Desmond Tutu
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I am passionately opposed to the death penalty for anyone . . . I think, myself, that it is an obscenity . . .
Desmond Tutu
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If forgiving depended on the culprit owning up, then the victim would always be at the mercy of the perpetrator. The victim would be bound in the shackles of victimhood.
Desmond Tutu
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Revenge has a way of corroding you, the revenger. You know it doesn't heal you.
Desmond Tutu
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The fossil reserves that have already been discovered exceed what can ever be safely used. Yet companies spend half a trillion dollars each year searching for more fuel. They should redirect this money toward developing clean energy solutions
Desmond Tutu
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The destruction of the earth’s environment is the human rights challenge of our time.
Desmond Tutu
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As a Christian, I believe in the sanctity of life and that death is a part of life.
Desmond Tutu
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Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.
Desmond Tutu
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In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.
Desmond Tutu
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Peace without justice is an impossibility.
Desmond Tutu
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Anything war can do, peace can do better.
Desmond Tutu
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Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.
Desmond Tutu
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Catharsis returns us to the purpose for which were originally intended - to be called by God to do good - and thus ultimately returns us to ourselves.
Desmond Tutu
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There are different kinds of justice. Retributive justice is largely Western. The African understanding is far more restorative - not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew.
Desmond Tutu
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I don't know any religion that promotes violence. It is the adherents of whatever religion.
Desmond Tutu