Barbara Jordan
Politician, Lawyer
"If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority."
Ubuntu quotes
Ubuntu
121 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Desmond Tutu
Theologian, Activist
"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
Desmond Tutu
Theologian, Activist
"Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks of the very essence of being human.... you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, 'My humanity is inextricably bound up in yours.' We belong in a bundle of life."
Oscar Romero
Archbishop, Activist
""Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.""
Alice Paul
Suffragist, Activist
"When you put your hand to the plow, you can't put it down until you get to the end of the row."
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Ubuntu quotes (page 1 of 7)
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"Bringing people together is what i call 'ubuntu,' which means 'I am because we are.' Far too often people think of themselves as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
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"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."
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"There is a word in South Africa - Ubuntu - that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us."
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"If you are trying to transform a brutalized society into one where people can live in dignity and hope, you begin with the empowering of the most powerless. You build from the ground up."
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"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."
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"Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace."
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"Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict - alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence."
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"Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible."
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"To the wicked, everything serves as pretext."
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"Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'"
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"In India when we meet and part we often say, "Namaste," which means: I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides; I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides; I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us�.. "Namaste.""
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"You know when ubuntu is there, and it is obvious when it is absent. It has to do with what it means to be truly human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life."
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"Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism."
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"In Africa there is a concept known as 'ubuntu' - the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievement of others."
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"War will stop when we no longer praise it, or give it any attention at all. Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited."
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"Every war, when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac."
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"The Bible has a very meaningful expression: The Spirit makes all things new. We are those who grow old, and we want everything done to our aged standards. The Spirit is never old; the Spirit is always young."
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"All works of love are works of peace."
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"Justice of right is always to take precedence over might."
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"It just seems clear to me that as long as we are all here, it's pretty clear that the struggle is to share the planet, rather than divide it."
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