Desmond Tutu Quotes

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

Dream of a world where children can laugh and play and not be blown up by a mine they thought was a toy.

Human beings can be awful, but they can also be tremendous.

There is only one way to eat an elephant, a bite at a time.

Each person is a V.S.P. (a Very Special Person) because we are each created in the image of God.

I don't preach a social gospel; I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person.

I have absolutely no objection to performance and success as long as they don't become false idols and threaten to rule our lives.

God says, 'You know what? I don't have anybody else... except you.'

Laugh more. Don't forget to enjoy the blessings that God bestows on this beautiful planet.

Only if we face up to our past can we regain our credibility. If we pretend that our trust is greater than it is, we will be like someone who tries to patch over a crack.

Hate has no place in the house of God.

In many ways, when you're a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.

There are two forms of justice. There is what is called retributive justice and there is restorative justice.

When you nurse a grudge it is not good for your health.

Mother Teresa, you could say many things about her, but certainly you would not say she was macho. Anything but.

We are all afflicted by original sin; people succumbing to temptations to do and to be.

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.

All the United States, it is a society that is split like to the bottom, that had very poor people in the country that is one of the wealthiest countries.

In God's family, there are no outsiders, no enemies.

We are made by God, we are made like God, we are made for God.

Each of us has a God-shaped space within us. Only God can fill that space. But we run ourselves ragged trying to find things other than God to fill it with.

I'm not an optimist. I'm a prisoner of hope.

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

A life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives.

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.

Once lost, trust can only be regained if we are as good as our word.

I don't know any religion that promotes violence. It is the adherents of whatever religion.

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

I say somewhat facetiously, "I'm so glad I'm not God." Can you imagine being God and looking at Syria and saying: "These are my children. Look at what they're doing to each other."

Retributive justice is one that says clobber him or clobber her because they clobbered me. So it emphasizes punishment.

Life is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life.

Every single one of us can do something, however small, to make a difference.

There can be no healing without truth.

South Africa, so utterly improbably, is a beacon of hope in a dark and troubled world.

I think we have got to put fire under the feet of all kinds of people.

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

When you think of the sort of things that happen when a genocide happens, it's again not people who are intrinsically evil.

The way God operates is on the basis of love.

Forgiveness is the grace by which you enable the other person to get up and get up with dignity, to begin anew.

One of the greatest gifts we can give to another generation is our experience, our wisdom.

We can enjoy a self-assurance that doesn't depend on the state of things outside ourselves, be it downturns or booms or whatever.

A time of crisis is not just a time of anxiety and worry. It gives a chance, an opportunity, to choose well or to choose badly.

Forgiving is a gift to the forgiver as well as to the perpetrator.

Our lives are a response to a love that we already have received.

People are able to justify immense cruelty and say that it is something that is sanctioned by their faith.

As the victim, you offer the gift of your forgiving to the perpetrator who may or may not appropriate the gift but it has been offered and thereby it liberates the victim.

Anything war can do, peace can do better.

Trust is one of the fundamentals of human existence. We need to be able to trust one another. A man who can no longer trust anyone will become sick.

Jesus could weep. Sometimes when you look at the ugliness that makes you weep, you know that the heart of God is also weeping. Jesus is for real. He does not give up on anyone, least of all on me.

Having looked the past in the eye, having asked for forgiveness and having made amends, let us shut the door on the past—not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us.