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Desmond Tutu Quotes

Total quotes: 22
“I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.”
— Desmond Tutu, You The Leader
Tagged: leader, Personality, Nature, human, Vacuum, purpose
“Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant.”
— Desmond Tutu, Hope and suffering: Sermons and speeches
Tagged: Freedom, Liberty, Loss, lost, Vigilant, vigilance, People, Wisdom
“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, Wikiquote.org: Desmond Tutu
Tagged: God, Freedom, Free Will, Free, Hell, Heaven, reverence
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
— Desmond Tutu, 'As You Are': What the World Can Learn From Desmond Tutu
Tagged: kindness, Good, Compassion
“We choose to heal and we choose to move forward by being brave and vulnerable enough to heal.”
— Desmond Tutu, Learning to Feel and Learning to Forgive
Tagged: Healing, Recovery, Moving On, Bravery, vulnerability
“Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.”
— Desmond Tutu, Exploring Forgiveness
Tagged: forgiveness, absolute, Necessity, human, Human Being, Existence, Life, Living
“Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion.”
— Desmond Tutu, Wikiquote.org: Desmond Tutu
Tagged: resentment, Anger, Blood Pressure, Health, Digestion
“We don't want apartheid liberalized. We want it dismantled. You can't improve something that is intrinsically evil.”
— Desmond Tutu, Wikiquote.org: Desmond Tutu
Tagged: apartheid , liberalize, Dismantle, improve, Evil, discrimination, South Africa, racism
“There are different kinds of justice. Retributive justice is largely Western. The African understanding is far more restorative - not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew.”
— Desmond Tutu, RECOVERING FROM APARTHEID
Tagged: different, Justice, Retribution, western, African, Understanding, Balance, redress, Punish, Restore
“Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations.”
— Desmond Tutu, Wikiquote.org: Desmond Tutu
Tagged: forgiveness, Future, Relationship, Individual, nation
“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, Urgency of a New Dawn: Prison Thoughts and Reflections
Tagged: neutral, situation, Injustice, Justice, side, oppress, lephant, Neutrality, Choose, Choice
“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, Wikiquote.org: Desmond Tutu
Tagged: Hear, Listen, Ask, message, say, Speak, human, Identity
“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 human rights”
— Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Tutu in his own words
Tagged: Interest, crumbs, Compassion, throw, throw away, Master, Servant, human, human rights, rights
“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, Wikiquote.org: Desmond Tutu
Tagged: Warning, warn, Fear, Fall, Crash, Blame, South Africa
“We refuse to be treated as the doormat for the government to wipe its jackboots on.”
— Desmond Tutu, Wikiquote.org: Desmond Tutu
Tagged: Refuse, Respect, Doormat, Government, Treatment
“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, Believe: The Words and Inspiration of Desmond Tutu
Tagged: Children, wonderful, Gift, Capacity, ability, able, heart, Love, see, Truth, Humble, Humility
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
— Desmond Tutu, The Peace Foundation
Tagged: Neutrailty, racism, Oppression, Your Voice, Injustice
“A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.”
— Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time
Tagged: Person, human, Human Being, acknowledge, Recognize
“I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. 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.”
— Desmond Tutu, Wikiquote.org: Desmond Tutu
Tagged: Age, Religion, Anglican , Church, vote, Option, Opinion, Right, rights, attribute, skin, complexion, Prejudice, Birth
“Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.”
— Desmond Tutu, Combined Destinies: Whites Sharing Grief about Racism
Tagged: Attitude, Personality, Race, Nice, humanity, Acceptance of Others, Tolerance
“History, like beauty, depends largely on the beholder, so when you read that, for example, David Livingstone discovered the Victoria Falls, you might be forgiven for thinking that there was nobody around the Falls until Livingstone arrived on the scene.”
— Desmond Tutu, Hope and suffering: Sermons and speeches
Tagged: History, beauty, Discover, Example, forgiven, forgiveness
“There could not be a future without forgiveness.”
— Desmond Tutu, Without Forgiveness, There Is No Future
Tagged: forgiveness, Future
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