Desmond Tutu quotes

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.
Desmond Tutu
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.
Desmond Tutu
A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.
Desmond Tutu
We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.
Desmond Tutu
I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.
Desmond Tutu
Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.
Desmond Tutu
When a pile of cups is tottering on the edge of the table and you warn that they will crash to the ground, in South Africa you are blamed when that happens.
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
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
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)
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.
Desmond Tutu
Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
Desmond Tutu
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
Desmond Tutu
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.
Desmond Tutu
Inclusive, good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.
Desmond Tutu
Sometimes you want to whisper in God's ear, "God, we know you are in charge, but why don't you make it slightly more obvious?"
Desmond Tutu
Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?
Desmond Tutu
Europe became rich because it exploited Africa; and the Africans know that.
Desmond Tutu
Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion.
Desmond Tutu
You must show the world that you abhor fighting. (Desmond Tutu)
South Africa, so utterly improbably, is a beacon of hope in a dark and troubled world.
Desmond Tutu
You and I are created for transcendence, laughter, caring. God deliberately did not make the world perfect, for God is looking for you and me to be fellow workers with God.
Desmond Tutu
God has such a deep reverence for our freedom that he'd rather let us freely go to Hell than be compelled to go to Heaven.
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