1. Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks of the very essence of being human . . . You share what you have. It is to say, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours." We belong in a bundle of life. We say "A person is a person through other persons." It is not "I think therefore I am." It says rather "I am human because I belong, I participate, I share." 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, or treated as if they were less than who they are. - Desmond Tutu, from No Future without Forgiveness

2. I brought food to the hungry And people called me a saint I asked why people were hungry And people called me a communist - Dom Helder Camara (advocate of liberation theology)

3. Demanding clarity about thoughts and feelings before sharing them can be a real problem . . . What I need is to share my jumbled up inner dialogue with someone who can hear, and in listening, can help me to hear myself. I am sorting out my thoughts and feelings if someone is not judging me right or wrong, consistent or inconsistent; not diagnosing and attaching labels; not pressing for logic and clarity. I do more than enough judging, labeling and pressing for answers as I listen to myself. When I press too hard and doggedly for total understanding, I get too bottled up and stop up the sounds inside. - Earl Koike, from Listening as a Way of Becoming

4. To me, all the work I do is built on a foundation of loving-kindness. Love illuminates matters. And when I write provocative social and cultural criticism that causes readers to stretch their minds, to think beyond set paradigms, I think of that as love in action. While it may challenge, disturb and at times even frighten or enrage readers, love is always the place where I begin and end . - bell hooks