Quotes from Desmond Tutu

Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations.

An abusive relationship should be easy to identify though often one of the most difficult to end.

Do your little bit of good where you are.

Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.

True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute.

The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated.

There is no religion in fact that I know that encourages or propagates violence in that its adherents should carry out.

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.

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

People will use their religion to justify virtually anything.

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

And every human being is precious.

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

But God can only smile because only God can know what is coming next.

The abolition of the death penalty is making us a civilized society. It shows we actually do mean business when we say we have reverence for life.

Having looked the beast of the past in the eye, having asked and received 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.

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

Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.

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

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you've closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

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

In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.

It is our moral obligation to give every child the very best education possible.