Desmond Tutu Quotes About Compassion
-
We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.
→ -
Frequently people think compassion and love are merely sentimental. No! They are very demanding. If you are going to be compassionate, be prepared for action.
→ -
God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion.
→ -
Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity - or because of their sexual orientation.
→ -
I hope that when the time comes, I am treated with compassion and allowed to pass on to the next phase of life's journey in the manner of my choice.
→ -
God places us in the world as his fellow workers-agents of transfiguration. We work with God so that injustice is transfigured into justice, so there will be more compassion and caring, that there will be more laughter and joy, that there will be more togetherness in God's world.
→ -
It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul.
→ -
There is no peace in Southern Africa. There is no peace because there is no justice. There can be no real peace and security until there be first justice enjoyed by all the inhabitants of that beautiful land. The Bible knows nothing about peace without justice, for that would be crying "peace, peace, where there is no peace". God's Shalom, peace, involves inevitably righteousness, justice, wholeness, fullness of life, participation in decision-making, goodness, laughter, joy, compassion, sharing and reconciliation.
→ -
The heart of the Christian Gospel is precisely that God is the all holy One; the all powerful One is also the One full of mercy and compassion. He is not a neutral God inhabiting some inaccessible Mount Olympus. He is a God who cares about His children and cares enormously for the weak, the poor, the naked, the downtrodden, the despised. He takes their side not because they are good, since many of them are demonstrably not so. He takes their side because He is that kind of God, and they have no one else to champion them.
→ -
You might have thought that a world such as ours, so hard-nosed and cynical and brash, would have very little time for transcendence, spiritual values of goodness and compassion, gentleness, and caring, but we actually do experience them.
→ -
Theology reminded me that, however diabolical the act, it did not turn the perpetrator into a demon. We had to distinguish between the deed and the perpetrator, between the sinner and the sin, to hate and condemn the sin while being filled with compassion for the sinner.
→ -
I have heard and seen many examples of the cruelty that we are able to visit on one another during my time. . . I have also seen incredible forgiveness and compassion. Yes, each of us has the capacity for great evil. But for every act of evil there are a dozen acts of goodness in our world that go unnoticed. It is only because we believe that people should be good that we despair when they are not. Indeed, if people condoned the evil, we would be justified in losing hope. But most of the world does not. We know that we are meant for better.
→ -
Africans believe in something that is difficult to render in English. We call it ubuntu, botho. It means the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about humaneness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.
→ -
I think that because this is a moral universe, then right will prevail, goodness will prevail, compassion will prevail, laughter will prevail, love, caring, sharing will prevail. Because we are made for goodness. We are made for love.
→ -
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.
→ -
Children learn about the nature of the world from their family. They learn about power and about justice, about peace and about compassion within the family. Whether we oppress or liberate our children in our relationships with them will determine whether they grow up to oppress and be oppressed or to liberate and be liberated.
→
Related Authors
-
Mahatma Gandhi Civil rights leader -
P. W. Botha Former Prime Minister of South Africa -
Thabo Mbeki South African Politician -
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Pastor -
Malala Yousafzai Journalist -
-
Idris Elba Actor -
Frederik Willem de Klerk Former State President of South Africa -
Mother Teresa Saint -
Graca Machel Minister for Education and Culture of Mozambique -
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela South African Politician -
Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil rights activist -
Aung San Suu Kyi Burmese Politician -
Steven Biko Activist -
Helen Zille Mayor of Cape Town -
Oliver Tambo South African Politician -
Robert Mugabe President of Zimbabwe -
Muhammad Yunus Entrepreneur -
Kofi Annan Diplomat -
Nelson Mandela Former President of South Africa