Desmond Tutu Quotes

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

Religion, Eyes, Said

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

History, Injustice, Appreciate

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
Desmond Tutu

Family, God, Gift

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

Good, Together, Put

Without forgiveness, there's no future.
Desmond Tutu

Forgiveness, Future

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.
Desmond Tutu

Someone, Compassion, Himself

We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.
Desmond Tutu

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.
Desmond Tutu

Another, Chance, Beginning

If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
Desmond Tutu

Peace, Friends, Talk

But God can only smile because only God can know what is coming next.
Desmond Tutu

Smile, God, Next

Racism, xenophobia and unfair discrimination have spawned slavery, when human beings have bought and sold and owned and branded fellow human beings as if they were so many beasts of burden.
Desmond Tutu

Human, Racism, Unfair

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

Heart, Children, Wonderful

My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.
Desmond Tutu

Human, Humanity, Together

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

System, Africa, South

A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.
Desmond Tutu

Person, Others, Persons

God is not upset that Gandhi was not a Christian, because God is not a Christian! All of God's children and their different faiths help us to realize the immensity of God.
Desmond Tutu

God, Children, Help

I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't.
Desmond Tutu

Wish, Won, Shut

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
Desmond Tutu

Hope, Light, Able

It is our moral obligation to give every child the very best education possible.
Desmond Tutu

Education, Best, Give

The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated.
Desmond Tutu

Religion, Family, God

Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.
Desmond Tutu

Life, Love, Hope

In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.
Desmond Tutu

God, Children, Evil

Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?
Desmond Tutu

God, Amazing, Made

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you've closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.
Desmond Tutu

Sun, Order, Open

We would like to see you departing peacefully.
Desmond Tutu

Departing, Peacefully

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Biography

Nationality: South African

Type: Leader

Born: October 7, 1931

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