Desmond Tutu was a South African-born theologian and Anglican bishop, popularly recognized as a human rights activist during the apartheid movement in South Africa in the '80s.
Desmond Tutu famously served as the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986–1996, prior to which he was the Bishop of Johannesburg for a year from 1985–1986. The Anglican bishop gained massive popularity for his fight against apartheid, defending human rights, and fighting on behalf of the oppressed.
Desmond Tutu was eventually duly honored for his efforts with the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, The Nobel Peace Prize, The Gandhi Peace Prize, and The Sydney Peace Prize.
Throughout his life as a human rights activist, Desmond Tutu delivered several speeches and often expressed his feelings on topics like apartheid, justice, homosexuality, fashion, sanctions, and many more via his writings, quotes, and columns.
Later on in his life, Desmond Tutu inspired several individuals with his sayings and quotes, some of which have been included below, with the Anglican bishop often talking about forgiveness, hope, and sheer willpower.
Best Desmond Tutu Quotes
This South African-born Anglican bishop was a beacon of positivity and righteousness who inspired several people to do what was right.
"My first point seems overwhelmingly simple: that the accidents of birth and geography determine to a very large extent to what faith we belong."
- 'God Is Not A Christian'.
"If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies."
"You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them."
"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."
"Language is very powerful. It does not just describe reality. It creates the reality it describes."
"We learn from history that we don't learn from history!"
"When we see the face of a child, we think of the future. We think of their dreams about what they might become, and what they might accomplish."
"When a pile of cups is tottering on the edge of the table and you warn that they will crash to the ground, in South Africa you are blamed when that happens."
"There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep."
"People often speak of God's being even-handed. God is not even-handed. God is biased in favor of the weak and despised."
"Universal education is not only a moral imperative but an economic necessity, to pave the way toward making many more nations self-sufficient and self-sustaining."
Motivational Desmond Tutu Quotes
Desmond Tutu quotes will provide you with the much-needed morning motivation to kickstart your day.
"Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need for one another."
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
"My father always used to say, 'Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument.' Good sense does not always lie with the loudest shouters, nor can we say that a large, unruly crowd is always the best arbiter of what is right."
"The Dead Sea in the Middle East receives freshwater, but it has no outlet, so it doesn't pass the water out. It receives beautiful water from the rivers, and the water goes dank. I mean, it just goes bad. And that's why it is the Dead Sea."
- 'The Book Of Joy: Lasting Happiness In A Changing World', Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Tenzin Gyatso.
"Though wrong gratifies in the moment, good yields its gifts over a lifetime."
"Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick it in someone's back."
"I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum."
"Life is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life."
"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."
"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 Quotes About Hope
Throughout his life, Desmond Tutu kept believing in himself and had hope that he would one day achieve success, and today we are all aware of the impact he had on this world.
"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."
"Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value."
"None of us comes into the world fully formed. We would not know how to think, or walk, or speak, or behave as human beings unless we learned it from other human beings. We need other human beings in order to be human."
"True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin, or any other identity attribute."
"Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter, you are just there in front of the fire. You don’t have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you."
"The quality of human life on our planet is nothing more than the sum total of our daily interactions with one another. Each time we help, and each time we harm, we have a dramatic impact on our world."
- 'The Book Of Forgiving'.
"We are made for love. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water."
"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."
"Dear Child of God, I am sorry to say that suffering is not optional."
- 'God Has A Dream: A Vision Of Hope For Our Time'.
"We must be ready to learn from one another, not claim that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God."
"Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice."
"Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?"
"God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion."
"I certainly know that I would not be able to survive if it were not for the fact that I am being upheld by the prayers of so many people."
"The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated."
Desmond Tutu Quotes On Forgiveness
The Nobel Peace Prize winner believed in the ideology of forgiveness, lived by it throughout his life, and inspired crowds to follow his path as well.
"Forgiveness does not mean condoning what has been done. Forgiving means abandoning your right to pay back the perpetrator in his own coin."
"Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning."
"It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul."
"We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low."
"Order to truly forgive oneself, one must either explicitly or implicitly acknowledge that one’s behavior was wrong and accept responsibility or blame for such behavior."
"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."
"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, cherish one another, and seek the greater good of the other."
"The fundamental law of human beings is interdependence. A person is a person through other persons."
"Without memory, there is no healing. Without forgiveness, there is no future."
"A person is a person through other people; you can't be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships."
"To forgive is to abandon your right to pay back the predator in his own coin, but it is the loss that liberates."
