Desmond Tutu Quotes

Quotes about:

• There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.

  Desmond Tutu

  Fall, Rivers, People

  336 Copy quote
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  Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

  Desmond Tutu

  Life, Success, Peace

  FaceBook post by Desmond Tutu from Jan 04, 2014

  285 Copy quote
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  If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

  Desmond Tutu

  Bullying, Peace, Elephants

  FaceBook post by Desmond Tutu from Jan 22, 2014

  264 Copy quote
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  Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.

  Desmond Tutu

  Order, Differences, Different

  Desmond Tutu (2011). “God Has A Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Times”, p.76, Random House

  289 Copy quote
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  If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

  Desmond Tutu

  Life, Friendship, Peace

  228 Copy quote

• We are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know. We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders. All are welcome: black, white, red, yellow, rich, poor, educated, not educated, male, female, gay, straight, all, all, all. We all belong to this family, this human family, God's family.

  Desmond Tutu

  Beautiful, Inspirational Love, Gay

  337 Copy quote
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  Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.

  Desmond Tutu

  Hope, Light, Darkness

  "The Priest". Interview with Deborah Solomon, www.nytimes.com. March 4, 2010.

  218 Copy quote

• One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.

  Desmond Tutu

  Country, Thinking, Ubuntu

  192 Copy quote

• 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.

  Desmond Tutu

  Bible, Prayer, Eye

  297 Copy quote

• I can't control what happens to me, but I can control how I respond to it.

  Desmond Tutu

  Happens, I Can

  "Interview with Reverend Mpho Tutu of The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

  22 Copy quote

• Gaza is going to test who believes in the worth of human beings.

  Desmond Tutu

  Believe, Tests, Gaza

  19 Copy quote

• Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.

  Desmond Tutu

  Maturity, Care, Agree To Disagree

  Desmond Tutu (2011). “God Has A Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Times”, p.22, Random House

  160 Copy quote

• Africans believe in something that is difficult to render in English. We call it ubuntu, botho. It means the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about humaneness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.

  Desmond Tutu

  Believe, Mean, Compassion

  Desmond Tutu, Naomi Tutu (1989). “The words of Desmond Tutu”, Newmarket Pr

  151 Copy quote

• It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone. And never let anyone tell you that what you are doing is insignificant.

  Desmond Tutu

  Ignorance, Mean, Rights

  43 Copy quote

• My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument."

  Desmond Tutu

  Morning, Father, Voice

  126 Copy quote

• Goodness is stronger than evil.
  Love is stronger than hate.
  Light is stronger than darkness.
  Life is stronger than death.
  Victory is ours through Him who loved us.

  Desmond Tutu

  Peace, Hate, Love Is

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  Desmond Tutu

  Children, Heart, Wonderful

  Desmond Tutu, John Webster (1982). “Bishop Desmond Tutu, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: a collection of his recent statements in the struggle for justice in South Africa”

  32 Copy quote

• I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.

  Desmond Tutu

  Racist, Territory, Apartheid

  68 Copy quote

• When you go to the Holy Land and see what's being done to the Palestinians at checkpoints, for us, it's the kind of thing we experienced in South Africa. Whether you want to say Israel practices apartheid is immaterial. They are doing things, given their history, you think, "Do you remember what happened to you?" Then they clobber you and say, "You are anti-Semitic."

  Desmond Tutu

  Thinking, Land, Practice

  "Interview: Desmond Tutu on gay rights, the Middle East and Pope Francis". Interview With Sarah Pulliam Bailey, www.washingtonpost.com. September 13, 2013.

  42 Copy quote

• We can carry the burden of hurt throughout our lives. We can make the hurt that we have experienced the defining aspect of our stories of ourselves. That means that somebody else gets to say who we are, somebody else gets to decide how we feel, and somebody else gets to decide how we see the world. Forgiveness not only frees us from the burden of someone else's opinion of us, but it allows us the opportunity to really write a story of ourselves that we can love, enjoy, relish, and live into.

  Desmond Tutu

  Hurt, Mean, Writing

  FaceBook post by Desmond Tutu from Apr 19, 2014

  17 Copy quote

• To forgive is to abandon your right to pay back the predator in his own coin, but it is the loss that Liberates.

  Desmond Tutu

  Loss, Forgiving, Coins

  26 Copy quote

• We have allowed the interests of capital to outweigh the interests of human beings and our Earth.

  Desmond Tutu

  Earth, Interest, Humans

  "We need an apartheid-style boycott to save the planet" by Desmond Tutu, www.theguardian.com. April 10, 2014.

  72 Copy quote

• 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.

  Desmond Tutu

  Dance, War, Evil

  73 Copy quote

• We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.

  Desmond Tutu

  Compassion, World, Goodness

  64 Copy quote

• Without memory, there is no healing. Without forgiveness, there is no future.

  Desmond Tutu

  Wisdom, Fun, Memories

  73 Copy quote

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