Can nofollow links hurt my site's ranking?

I'm building links, not for SEO but to try and generate direct traffic, if these links are no-follow am I safe from getting any Google penalties? Asked another way, can no-follow links hurt my site?
Tubby Timmy, UK

Learn about rel="nofollow": https://support.google.com/web....masters/answer/96569

Have a question? Ask it in our Webmaster Help Forum: http://groups.google.com/a/goo....gleproductforums.com

Want your question to be answered on a video like this? Follow us on Twitter and look for an announcement when we take new questions: http://twitter.com/googlewmc

More videos: http://www.youtube.com/GoogleWebmasterHelp
Webmaster Central Blog: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/
Webmaster Central: http://www.google.com/webmasters/