Quotes from Desmond Tutu

God is trying to woo us into a love affair with God.

God loved me before I actually was.

In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute - a white skin.

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.

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

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?"

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

When people decide they want to be free, there is nothing that can stop them.

Ubuntu really says if you want to be nice to yourself, start in a way by being nice to the other.

God wants to set the oppressed free from being oppressed and the oppressors free from oppressing.

God could have created us to be automatons who were always choosing the right side, making the right decision. It is an incredible thing, God said "I want persons" who therefore have freedom.

If everyone who wants to see an end to poverty, hunger and suffering speaks out, then the noise will be deafening.

Serve others. The failing recipe for happiness and success is to want the good of others.

Every situation of justice is an occasion where someone is being humiliated and they want to restore their dignity.

One of the things we might want to learn when considering the failings of others is not to gloat because someone else has tripped up.

People want much the same things, but they have been formed by history to have a particular perception of the other.

All people would really want peace and all would want to be sure that they would not be taken advantage of.

Most poor people I know are proud and really want not a handout but a hand up. They do have an inherent pride and dignity, and we should treat them as those who have fallen on bad days.

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

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

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

Without memory, there is no healing. Without forgiveness, there is no future.

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

I'm absolutely, utterly, and completely certain that God wouldn't be homophobic. I'd much rather go to hell - I really would much rather go to hell - than go to a homophobic heaven.