58 Inspirational Desmond Tutu Quotes (HOPE)

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Top 10 Most Famous Desmond Tutu Quotes (BEST)

“Forgiving is not forgetting; it’s actually remembering–remembering and not using your right to hit back. It’s 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

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. — **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. — Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. — If you want **peace**, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.

“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

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. — You don’t choose your **family**. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

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.

Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread or stick it in someone’s back.

Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.

13 Inspirational Desmond Tutu Quotes About Life (HUMANITY)

“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

My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human.

It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul. — It is through weakness and **vulnerability** that most of us learn **empathy** and **compassion** and discover our soul.

“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

Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value. — Your ordinary acts of **love** and **hope** point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.

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. — 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.

Ultimately our greatest joy is when we seek to do good for others.

“A person is a person through other persons. 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. I am because other people are. A person is entitled to a stable community life, and the first of these communities is the family.”
Desmond Tutu

We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water. — We are made for loving. If we don’t **love**, we will be like plants without water.

It's a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela. — It’s a blessing that South Africa has a man like **Nelson Mandela**.

I’m coming to believe more and more in the truth that everything we do has consequences. a good deed doesn’t just evaporate and disappear.

Dream. Dream. And then go for it! — **Dream**. Dream. And then go for it!

Ubuntu… my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up in what is yours.

3 Motivational Desmond Tutu Quotes About Forgiveness

“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 says you are given another chance to make a new beginning. — **Forgiveness** says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

Without forgiveness, there is no future. — Without **forgiveness**, there is no future.

9 Wise Desmond Tutu Quotes (WISDOM)

“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

My father 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.

How could you have a soccer team if all were goalkeepers? How would it be an orchestra if all were French horns?

Inclusive, good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies. — Inclusive, good-quality **education** is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.

It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone.

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. — 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.

If we are going to bring about change, then men, for goodness sake, stand up. — If we are going to bring about **change**, then men, for goodness sake, stand up.

Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion. — **Resentment** and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion.

6 Desmond Tutu Quotes on Humans

“Racism, xenophobia and unfair discrimination have spawned slavery, when human beings have bought and sold and owned and branded fellow human beings as if they were so many beasts of burden.”
Desmond Tutu

We inhabit a universe that is characterized by diversity.

We learn from history that we don't learn from history! — We **learn** from history that we don’t learn from history!

As human beings, we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.

There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.

What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?

5 Desmond Tutu Quotes on Freedom

“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

Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant. — **Freedom** and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. — The price of **freedom** is eternal vigilance.

Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice. — Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to **freedom** and justice.

It is by standing up for the rights of girls and women that we measure up as men.

2 Desmond Tutu Quotes on Children

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. — **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.

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 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.

5 Desmond Tutu Quotes on Christians

“For Christians, who believe they are created in the image of God, it is the Godhead, diversity in unity and the three-in-oneness of God, which we and all creation reflect.”
Desmond Tutu