Quotes by 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.

Gaza is going to test who believes in the worth of human beings.

Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.

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.

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.

As much as the world has an instinct for evil and is a breeding ground for genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, war, oppression, and injustice, the world has an even greateer instinct for goodness, rebirth, mercy, beauty, truth, freedom and love.

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.

My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument."

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

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

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

All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others

If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

I can't control what happens to me, but I can control how I respond to it.

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.