A library of wisdom
Ubuntu — Quotes
When you greet someone in Zulu, you do not say hello. You say Sawubona — "I see you." The reply is Yebo, sawubona — "Yes, I see you too." The conversation cannot begin until both p A curated set of 30 quotes from the Ubuntu tradition.
“A person is a person through other people. Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.”
“Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?”
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”
“A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good. They have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing they belong in a greater whole.”
“We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected.”
“To say nothing is also a position, but in Ubuntu thought, silence is collusion.”
“There can be no future without forgiveness — and no forgiveness without truth.”
“I am because we are. Without you, I am not.”
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
“When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace.”
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
“It always seems impossible until it is done.”
“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
“Sawubona — I see you. The greeting that contains a whole philosophy.”
“Yebo, sawubona — yes, I see you too. The reply that completes the recognition.”
“In the African philosophy of Ubuntu, leadership is service. The leader is the servant of the people.”
“Western individualism asks: what is in it for me? Ubuntu asks: what does this mean for us?”
“The Indaba — the council of voices — is the way Ubuntu makes decisions. Nobody owns the truth. The room owns the truth.”
“I will not abandon Mother Nature. I will not abandon my people. I will not abandon the children of Africa.”
“You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself. That values itself. That understands itself.”
“It is the little things citizens do. That is what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.”
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
“Each one, teach one.”
“When elephants fight, the grass suffers. When they make love, the grass also suffers.”
“The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”
“A single bracelet does not jingle.”
“However long the night, the dawn will break.”
“No matter how full the river is, it still wants to grow.”
“Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.”
“I am, because you are.”