77 Desmond Tutu Quotes on the Need for a More Humane Life
He inspired millions of people around the world as a political symbol and a highly popular religious leader. As a tribute to this great icon, we have curated for you this collection of Desmond Tutu quotes.
Born in 1931, to a poor family in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa, Desmond Mpilo Tutu was a South African bishop and human rights activist. Tutu trained as a teacher and then moved to the United Kingdom to study theology. Upon his return to South Africa he held various positions in the Anglican Church of South Africa, before becoming Bishop of Johannesburg and in 1986 Archbishop of Cape Town.
Tutu came to fame as one of the most prominent opponents of South Africa’s apartheid system. A man of God and a strong advocate of non-violent protest, Tutu believed in freedom and human rights, envisioning a democratic South African society with equal civil rights for all and without racial divisions, and towards this goal he worked relentlessly, investing his endeavors in bridging the gap between blacks and whites. For his commitment and pivotal role in bringing down South Africa’s racist system he was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.
A fervent activist and outspoken throughout his entire life, Tutu campaigned for gay rights and also supported numerous human rights causes all over the world. He was a staunch critic of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians and was also strongly opposed to the Iraq war. Internationally praised for his efforts, Tutu garnered numerous awards and accolades. He died from cancer in 2021, in Cape Town.
Desmond Tutu’s most inspirational quotes are here for you to share with friends and loved ones in order to motivate them, but also to reflect upon and broaden your perspective of life for the better!
Table of Contents
- Short and Meaningful Desmond Tutu Quotes
- Inspirational Desmond Tutu Quotes About Humanity
- Desmond Tutu Quotes on Social Justice
- Desmond Tutu Quotes on Reconciliation
- Quotes by Desmond Tutu About God and Religion
- Quotes by Desmond Tutu on Apartheid, Palestine, Homosexuality and Oppression
- More Desmond Tutu Quotes About Our World
Short and Meaningful Desmond Tutu Quotes
A collection of succinct nuggets of wisdom that will make perfect captions for your Instagram and social media posts! Vibey one-liners that will capture the interest of your audience!
- I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t. Desmond Tutu
- 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
- Though wrong gratifies in the moment, good yields its gifts over a lifetime. Desmond Tutu
- Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument. Desmond Tutu
- Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
- Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone’s back. Desmond Tutu
- We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water. Desmond Tutu
- If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. Desmond Tutu
- When your dreams turn to dust, vacuum. Desmond Tutu
- Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another. Desmond Tutu
- Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality, language creates the reality it describes. Desmond Tutu
- A person is a person through other persons; you can’t be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships. Desmond Tutu
- We learn from history that we don’t learn from history! Desmond Tutu
- You don’t choose your family, they are God’s gift to you, as you are to them. Desmond Tutu
- Dear Child of God, I am sorry to say that suffering is not optional. Desmond Tutu
- There is something in us that refuses to be regarded as less than human. We are created for freedom. Desmond Tutu
- Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value. Desmond Tutu
- I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum. Desmond Tutu
- Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning. Desmond Tutu
- If we are going to see real development in the world then our best investment is WOMEN! Desmond Tutu
- Without forgiveness, there is no future. Desmond Tutu
- Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. Desmond Tutu
- It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul. Desmond Tutu
- A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons. Desmond Tutu
- Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity. Desmond Tutu
- There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep. Desmond Tutu
- Do not heal in isolation. Connecting with others is how we develop compassion for others and for ourselves. Desmond Tutu
- Healing means that our dignity is restored and we are able to move forward in our lives. Desmond Tutu
- Life is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life. Desmond Tutu
- People are not born hating each other and wishing to cause harm. It is a learned condition. Desmond Tutu
Inspirational Desmond Tutu Quotes About Humanity
Desmond Tutu infused his Christian beliefs with the African philosophy of Ubuntu, a humanitarian principle asserting that a person is a person through other people and in this sense expressing the universal truth that we are all connected!
- Suffering is part and parcel of the human condition, but suffering can either embitter or ennoble us. It can ennoble us and become a spirituality of transformation when we find meaning in it. Desmond Tutu
- We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy. Desmond Tutu
- It is true that when we harm others, we harm ourselves; but it is just as true that when we help others, we also help ourselves. Desmond Tutu
- Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. Desmond Tutu
- How could you have a soccer team if all were goalkeepers? How would it be an orchestra if all were French horns? Desmond Tutu
- There is a certain kind of dignity we admire, and to which we aspire, in the person who refuses to meet anger with anger, violence with violence, or hatred with hatred. Desmond Tutu
- 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
- We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God. Desmond Tutu
- 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. Desmond Tutu
- When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others. Desmond Tutu
- We can be human only together. A person is a person to other persons. We so desperately long for all of us to learn that we are meant for one another. We are meant for complementarity. Desmond Tutu
- A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed. Desmond Tutu
- We are all connected. What unites us is our common humanity. I don’t want to oversimplify things – but the suffering of a mother who has lost her child is not dependent on her nationality, ethnicity or religion. White, black, rich, poor, Christian, Muslim or Jew – pain is pain – joy is joy. Desmond Tutu
- Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring. Desmond Tutu
- We were made to enjoy music, to enjoy beautiful sunsets, to enjoy looking at the billows of the sea and to be thrilled with a rose that is bedecked with dew… Human beings are actually created for the transcendent, for the sublime, for the beautiful, for the truthful… and all of us are given the task of trying to make this world a little more hospitable to these beautiful things. Desmond Tutu
- In each of us, there is an innate ability to create joy out of suffering, to find hope in the most hopeless of situations, and to heal any relationship in need of healing. Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu Quotes on Social Justice
Freedom, liberty and equality are universal rights inherent to all human beings regardless of color, creed, gender, nationality or any other status!
- Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant. Desmond Tutu
- 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 human rights. Desmond Tutu
- Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice. Desmond Tutu
- 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
- 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
- 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. Desmond Tutu
- 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
Desmond Tutu Quotes on Reconciliation
A devout Christian, Desmond Tutu believed that all humans were non-violent by nature and to overcome the dehumanizing effects of hatred and violence we need to show love and forgiveness!
- Forgiving is not forgetting; its actually remembering–remembering and not using your right to hit back. Its a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you don’t want to repeat what happened. Desmond Tutu
- I would like to share with you two simple truths: there is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no one un-deserving of forgiveness. Desmond Tutu
- Renewing a relationship is a creative act. We make a new relationship. It is possible to build a new relationship regardless of the realities of the old relationship. Desmond Tutu
- Forgiving and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing. Desmond Tutu
- Forgiveness is nothing less than the way we heal the world. We heal the world by healing each and every one of our hearts. The process is simple, but it is not easy. Desmond Tutu
- Cultivate your forgiveness with your friends, with your family, with strangers, and with yourself. Remind yourself that every person you encounter carries a sorrow and a struggle. Recognize that we all share a fundamental humanity. Desmond Tutu
Quotes by Desmond Tutu About God and Religion
Desmond Tutu invited everyone to embrace a broader perspective of God and religion. God does not belong to any specific faith! We are all God’s children and we all belong to the family of our Heavenly Father!
- 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
- 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. Desmond Tutu
- I regard Abraham as my ancestor. Some of the greatest inspiration I have got has come from what we call the Old Testament prophets and what Jews would say “our prophets.” Desmond Tutu
- I can’t for the life of me imagine that God would say, ‘I will punish you because you are black; you should have been white. I will punish you because you are a woman; you should have been a man. I punish you because you are homosexual; you ought to have been heterosexual. I can’t, I can’t for the life of me believe that that is how God sees things. Desmond Tutu
- There is no religion in fact that I know that encourages or propagates violence in that its adherents should carry out. Desmond Tutu
- I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this. I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place. I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. Desmond Tutu
- My first point seems overwhelmingly simple: that the accidents of birth and geography determine to a very large extent to what faith we belong. Desmond Tutu
Quotes by Desmond Tutu on Apartheid, Palestine, Homosexuality and Oppression
Reflections on Desmond Tutu’s views about racism and human rights issues to help us realize that we are all in this together. We can be human only together and we can rise or fall only together!
- We shall be free only together, black and white. We shall survive only together, black and white. We can be human only together, black and white. Desmond Tutu
- I don’t often want to speak. I try to be a reasonable person and to be diplomatic, but you go to that place and you see the settlements, you see what has happened to the land that was owned by the Palestinians. I have often said to my Jewish friends: “Please just remember where you come from. Remember Yahweh, who said to the Israelites, ‘Treat the alien well with justice.'” Desmond Tutu
- 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
- 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
- It isn’t that it’s questionable when you speak up for the right of people with different sexual orientation. People took some part of us and used it to discriminate against us. In our case, it was our ethnicity; it’s precisely the same thing for sexual orientation. People are killed because they’re gay. Desmond Tutu
- Is Zionism racism? I would say yes. It’s a policy that to me looks like it has very many parallels with racism. The effect is the same. Whether you call it that or not is in a sense irrelevant. Desmond Tutu
More Desmond Tutu Quotes About Our World
An interesting collection of thought provoking and enlightening quotes about our world and how to make it a better and more humane place!
- The way to understand any enemy is to realize that, from his perspective, he is not a villain but a hero. Desmond Tutu
- He’s a tremendous breath of fresh air. The things he (Pope Francis) has done in a short period of time: the fact that he does not live in a huge papal mansion and just dropped by in the dining room where ordinary people have meals. You think of his background, where he didn’t use limousines in South America, that he used public transport. I’m so, so thrilled that he is there at this crucial moment in the history of our world. Desmond Tutu
- 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
Desmond Tutu was Africa’s voice of morality, hope and forgiveness. His dream of Africa as a “Rainbow Nation”, where all people and ethnic groups live together in harmony and enjoy equal rights, irrespective of identity attributes, continues to inspire even to this day, providing the fiber with which to weave the new social fabric of the world.
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