Clemantine Wamariya Quotes
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Forgiveness allowed me to wash my burdened past away.
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We are all neighbors. Be kind. Be gentle.
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I want people to know that they are the masters, the queens, kings, and gods of their own story.
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It occurred to me that memorials shouldn't be grand. If you really want to honor the memory of a tragedy, you shouldn't create areas of calm reflection. You should make people uncomfortable. Put them in the shoes of those who perpetrated and those who suffered. Then ask, would they be able to forgive in these situations?
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Being kind to myself helped me deal with people who thought less of me and thought they were better than me.
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Sharing is wonderful, but giving - I give, you take - often maintains the power status quo.
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My day-to-day varies. I do some public speaking. I talk to school groups.
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I enjoyed playing everywhere, especially my mother's garden and my neighbor's. I loved my kindergarten. We sang songs; we played everywhere and ate lunch. I had a childhood that I would wish for anyone.
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I want to listen to people's stories and find strength in them. There is so much human-caused pain and suffering in the world. I want to honor all those difficult experiences and acknowledge their aftermath. At the same time, I want to really see and love the world around me.
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It's taken a lot of years for me to learn how to share my story.
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I never thought that being a public speaker would teach me so much about life and make it so beautiful as well.
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Elie Wiesel and his book 'Night' have changed my life, shifting the way I see and treat people and inspiring me to fight injustices any way I am able.
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I hate light... I feel like at night, it's safer. If anything happens, there's a way to hide at night. Another thing I hate about light is it reminds me about being in a refugee camp and being outside.
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Growing up, many of us are taught to place limits on what we can accomplish while on earth. We tend to think of things in binary form: either as possible or, more frequently, impossible.
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My copy of 'Night' is dog-eared. The pages are filled with plastic colored 'flags' that are blue, green, purple, and yellow. Vocabulary is in the margins; phrases and sentences are underlined, some with pencil, and some with pen. Many words are circled.
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I am not a refugee. I sought refuge for many years, but the word 'refugee' does not define me. It just limits me and puts me in a box.
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If we believe that a person seeking refuge is to be pitied, feared, despised, and looked down upon, we are doing ourselves a disservice.
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Growing up in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, I had a wonderful life, one that I have not experienced anywhere since, even after living in nine countries.
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There are a lot of great people everywhere. And there are also a lot of not so great people.
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Words will never be enough to quantify and qualify the many magnitudes of human-caused destruction.