Desmond Tutu
South African Anglican archbishop, theologian, anti-apartheid activist, Nobel Peace laureate (1984), and chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission — the man who coined the phrase 'rainbow nation' and who, with the Dalai Lama, anchored two decades of public conversation between Christian and Buddhist teachers of joy. Born 1931 in Klerksdorp, Tutu became the first Black Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986; from that pulpit he opposed apartheid in moral, theological, and (when church discipline allowed) political terms, then later spoke against the policies of the post-apartheid African National Congress with the same unflinching voice. His teaching is built on ubuntu — 'I am because we are' — and on the conviction that forgiveness, while costly, is the only sustainable path to a shared human future. He died in Cape Town in 2021.
quotes in library
Quotes by Desmond Tutu
111 quotes“Inclusivity is not optional.”
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”
“A person is a person through other persons.”
“Without forgiveness, there's no future.”
“Forgiving is not forgetting; it's actually remembering and not using your right to hit back.”
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
“Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.”
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
“In our African understanding, part of ubuntu — being human — is the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation.”
“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.”
“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.”
“There is no future without forgiveness.”
“To forgive is not just to be altruistic. It is the best form of self-interest.”
“Forgiveness is the way we set those prisoners free and realize that we ourselves were the jailers.”
“Forgiving is not condoning. It is not excusing. It is not even necessarily reconciling.”
“Why do you not laugh more?”
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