To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice.
Interpretation
Taking a life in response to another life lost is an act of revenge, not true justice.
Desmond Tutu's quote highlights the distinction between revenge and justice, asserting that responding to violence with more violence does not achieve true accountability or fairness. Instead, it perpetuates a cycle of harm and fails to address the deeper issues that lead to such tragedies.
In practice
In a discussion on moral dilemmas in a philosophy class.
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
As much as the world has an instinct for evil and is a breeding ground for genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, war, oppression, and injustice, the world has an even greateer instinct for goodness, rebirth, mercy, beauty, truth, freedom and love.
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.
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.
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.
Gaza is going to test who believes in the worth of human beings.
We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing
When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf, and takes his dog to see the sport, he should take care to avoid mistakes. The dog has certain relationships to the wolf the shepherd may have forgotten.
A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality.
Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins.
Every global concern - economic, environmental or security-related - can be addressed more effectively when the U.S. and China work together.
It's hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.
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