Top Desmond Tutu Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Desmond Tutu Biography

Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African Religious Leader and theologian known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was the Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black man to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology; politically, he identifies as a socialist.

Read about Desmond Tutu in Wikipedia

Random Authors

Desmond Tutu Quotes

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.

Children, Country, Denied, Racial, Rights, Years

Look at Nelson Mandela. Why did people want to follow him? He's a lousy speaker. If he hadn't got all the other things, you wouldn't spend time listening to him. But people actually don't listen to what he's saying, in a way. They are listening to him because he has communicated that he is ready to put his life on the line.

People, Listening, Looks, Speaker, Listen, Spend

Dream! Dream! And then go for it!

Dream

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

Default, Inspirational, Leader, Leadership, Nature, Vacuum

We give kudos to people who have succeeded. We don't care in what they succeeded as long as they succeeded. The worst thing that can happen to anybody in this cultural environment is to fail.

Environment, Giving, Long, People, Succeeded, Thing

There are people who go to bed hungry, and that is unconscionable.

Bed, Hungry, People, Unconscionable

Restorative justice says "No, the offense affected a relationship" and what you are seeking for is to restore the relationship, to heal the relationship.

Heal, Justice, Offense, Restorative, Says

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

Loss, Forgiving, Coins, Forgive, Pay

I've often been a little concerned by people who say they are color-blind, people who claim, in some ways, not to be aware of race, and I hope that those who will be looking for a vision of the future will be a little more honest, and say race actually does matter.

Aware, Color, Hope, People, Race, Visions Of The Future

I will never tell anyone to pick up a gun. But I will pray for the man who picks up a gun, pray that he will be less cruel than he might otherwise have been.

Gun, Man, Men, Might, Picks, Pray

One day we'll wake up and discover we are family.

Day, Discover, Family, One Day, Wake, Wake Up

We are fundamentally good, and evil is an aberration.

Aberration, Evil, Good, Good And Evil

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.

Africans, Believe, Compassion, Essence, Mean, Toughness

It always comes back to our insecurities, as we say, "Oh, I'm not as good as you. " So instead of accepting that perhaps I am not as good as someone else in some ways and being comfortable with who I am as I am, I spend all my time denigrating you, trying to cut you down to my self-perceived size. The sad problem is that we see ourselves as being quite terribly small. Instead of spending my time being envious, I need to celebrate your and my different gifts, even if mine are perhaps less spectacular than yours.

Back, Cutting, Different, Say, Self, Who I Am

Making the truth public is a form of justice. This is a moral universe and you've got to take account of the fact that truth and lies and goodness and evil are things that matter.

Evil, Justice, Lying, Making, Truth

I suppose being the kind of creatures we [people] are, we like to censor the past, and are selective, or want to be selective about the things that we remember. If you want to destroy people, destroy their memory, destroy their history.

Censor, Destroy, Memories, Past, People, Selective

God's love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion.

Confined, Conflict, Love Is, Side, Sides

If you are invisible, you are vulnerable. Birth Registration must be everyone's priority. Let's make all children visible and let's give every child a birthday!

Children, Give, Giving, Make, Priorities

All of us experience fear, but when we confront and acknowledge it, we are able to turn it into courage. Being courageous does not mean never being scared; it means acting as you know you must even though you are undeniably afraid.

Acting, Experience, Fear, Know, Mean, Though

Catharsis returns us to the purpose for which were originally intended - to be called by God to do good - and thus ultimately returns us to ourselves.

Catharsis, Good, Intended, Purpose, Return, Returns

1

...