Paul Kagame Quotes

We cannot erase what has been done. We can apologize for it. We can express our outrage. We can say to the American people and to the people of the world, this is not our way and we do not condone it, but we cannot change it and we cannot erase it.

When you face up to bad things in the past, the most important thing is not to allow them to happen today or in the future, and as storytellers, we must play our part in that.

The justice of our cause must be reflected in the manner in which we rectify the crimes of the past.

In my several visits to Germany, I have written in admiration of that country's strenuous efforts to face its past and make amends.

Today we have to learn all over again that love for the sinner and love for the person who has been harmed are correctly balanced if I punish the sinner in the form that is possible and appropriate.

What's done can't be undone, but at least you can keep it from happening again.

Is it to be thought unreasonable that the people, in atonement for wrongs of a century, demand the vengeance of a single day?

What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again

Sometimes you simply made the wrong choice and you had to live with it. You could only change the future.

I am grateful that I live in a nation where most believe that one's punishment should fit their wrongdoing and that ours is a nation that judges an individual by both what he has done and how he has changed.

Once you take a life, that's it. I don't even deserve to be here.

I have to say that it's very few countries that are willing to look back at its past and apologize for its act, or make amends for its act, as the United States had one.

Justice for the major perpetrators cannot be separated from the vindication of the rights of the individual victim.

I don't talk about my past; people ask me about it. I've done things I'm ashamed of, but one thing I can honestly say is that things I've done that I regret, I've never done twice. I work really hard at that.

Don't time travel into the past, roaming through the nuances as if they can change. Don't bookmark pages you've already read.

Mistakes you can learn from; sins stay with you forever.

If you are serving justice to one person, those who have been affected should also be served some form of justice.

Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.

I firmly believe that you live and learn, and if you don't learn from past mistakes, then you need to be drug out and shot.

You can forgive somebody and still believe they need a consequence.

I don't believe in vengeance. Really, when all is said and done, I probably don't believe in punishment.

I cannot take back one word or action; the past does not change for anyone.

Come up with a few examples from the Bible – or from history, or from whatever – that kind of show, you know, how when you've made a mess, you can do the best you can to clean it up, you make it right the best you can, and you keep going.

Now I am a private citizen, During the time of my government I have wielded almost absolute powers. I ask you to believe me that whatever wrongs I may have done have been the result of difficult conditions in which it was my lot to govern, and not the fruit of evil passions. I am ready to answer any accusations you wish to make against me. And if the wrongs I have done can be purged by my blood, then take of me the vengeance you will. Here is my breast!

This entire administration has been a disgrace from the very beginning to everyone who has had any thing to do with bring it to power. I take my full share of the … shame myself. I can atone for what I have done no otherwise than in refusing to be instrumental in continuing it.