Desmond Tutu quotes

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

— Desmond Tutu

“Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that's where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.”

— Desmond Tutu

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

— Desmond Tutu

“And every human being is precious.”

— Desmond Tutu

“I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.”

— Desmond Tutu

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

— Desmond Tutu

“In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.”

— Desmond Tutu

“We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.”

— Desmond Tutu

“Europe became rich because it exploited Africa; and the Africans know that.”

— Desmond Tutu

“Many people would be surprised that, in fact, I'm quite shy.”

— Desmond Tutu

“We inhabit a universe that is characterized by diversity.”

— Desmond Tutu

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

— Desmond Tutu

“God's love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion.”

— Desmond Tutu

“Hate has no place in the house of God.”

— Desmond Tutu

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

— Desmond Tutu

“Inclusive, good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.”

— Desmond Tutu

“People often speak of God being even-handed. God is not even-handed. God is biased, in favor of the weak, of the despised.”

— Desmond Tutu

“The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it - oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.”

— Desmond Tutu

“Those who invest in South Africa should not think they are doing us a favor; they are here for what they get out of our cheap and abundant labor, and they should know that they are buttressing one of the most vicious systems.”

— Desmond Tutu

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

— Desmond Tutu

“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.”

— Desmond Tutu

“Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.”

— Desmond Tutu

“Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.”

— Desmond Tutu

“For goodness sake, will they hear, will white people hear what we are trying to say? Please, all we are asking you to do is to recognize that we are humans, too.”

— Desmond Tutu

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

— Desmond Tutu

“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.”

— Desmond Tutu

“I don't think I've ever felt that same kind of peace, the kind of serenity that I felt after acknowledging that maybe I was going to die of this TB.”

— Desmond Tutu

“I mean in the South African case, many of those who were part of death squads would have been respectable members of their white community, people who went to church on Sunday, every Sunday.”

— Desmond Tutu

“I think that most of us would prefer to be popular than unpopular.”

— Desmond Tutu

“I've never doubted that apartheid - because it was of itself fundamentally, intrinsically evil - was going to bite the dust eventually.”

— Desmond Tutu