Desmond Tutu

Theologian, Activist

Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican bishop and social rights activist known for his work against apartheid and his advocacy for reconciliation.

Born
October 7, 1931
Quotes
521
Rank
#236

Quote collection

Desmond Tutu quotes (page 10 of 27)

521 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"God looks at the Middle East, looks at Palestine. 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."

Read quote 10 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"I wonder whether they have rum and Coke in Heaven? Maybe it's too mundane a pleasure, but I hope so -- as a sundowner. Except, of course, the sun never goes down there. Oh, man, this heaven is going to take some getting used to."

Read quote 10 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"An abusive relationship should be easy to identify though often one of the most difficult to end."

Read quote 10 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"The only separation the Bible knows is between believers on the one hand and unbelievers on the other. Any other kind of separation, division, disunity is of the devil. It is evil and from sin."

Read quote 10 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"I don't struggle to forgive people. I find it quite easy to forgive people for the harms that they have inflicted on me. What I do find challenging is to forgive people for the harms they inflict on my daughters and family. So, I find it challenging when I see somebody else experience hurt. I also look at my children and family and then I realize, I don't stand inside their skin and that is for me a forgiveness practice I still need to engage in."

Read quote 10 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"Just as I need other human beings in order to learn from them, so I also need their trust. If we aren't aware of that, if we fail to take it to heart and instead betray other people's trust, things will go badly with us."

Read quote 10 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"There would be those of us who say that in many ways, you worry about what the Jews in Israel are doing to themselves. Yes, they may at the moment have incredible power and are supported almost unconditionally by especially America, but most of the West as well. Yet what they are doing is contrary to the best teaching and highest teachings of their faith."

Read quote 10 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"You stand out in the crowd only because you have these many, many carrying you on their shoulders."

Read quote 10 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"We must embrace our differences, even celebrate our diversity. We must glory in the fact that God created each of us as unique human beings. God created us different, but God did not create us for separation. God created us different that we might recognize our need for one another. We must reverence our uniqueness, reverence everything that makes us what we are: our language, our culture, our religious tradition."

Read quote 9 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"In the end what matters is not how good we are but how good God is. Not how much we love Him but how much He loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t."

Read quote 9 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"Most of the leading figures of the Old Testament were polygamists. Abraham had several wives and concubines. If they wanted, they could say this was approved in the Bible."

Read quote 9 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"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."

Read quote 9 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion."

Read quote 9 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"God is patient with us to become the God's children he wants us to be but you really can see him weeping."

Read quote 9 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"When a chap is in love, he will go out in all kinds of weather to keep an appointment with his beloved. Love can be demanding, in fact more demanding than law. It has its own imperatives - think of a mother sitting by the bedside of a sick child through the night, impelled only by love. Nothing is too much trouble for love."

Read quote 9 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"Because there is global insecurity, nations are engaged in a mad arms race, spending billions of dollars wastefully on instruments of destruction, when millions are starving. And yet, just a fraction of what is expended so obscenely on defense budgets would make the difference in enabling God's children to fill their stomachs, be educated, and given the chance to lead fulfilled and happy lives."

Read quote 9 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons."

Read quote 8 likes
Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Popular

"Forgiveness and reconciliation are not just ethereal, spiritual, other-worldly activities. They have to do with the real world. They are realpolitik, because in a very real sense, without forgiveness, there is no future."

Read quote 8 likes