Desmond Tutu
South African Anglican archbishop, theologian, anti-apartheid activist, Nobel Peace laureate (1984), and chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission — the man who coined the phrase 'rainbow nation' and who, with the Dalai Lama, anchored two decades of public conversation between Christian and Buddhist teachers of joy. Born 1931 in Klerksdorp, Tutu became the first Black Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986; from that pulpit he opposed apartheid in moral, theological, and (when church discipline allowed) political terms, then later spoke against the policies of the post-apartheid African National Congress with the same unflinching voice. His teaching is built on ubuntu — 'I am because we are' — and on the conviction that forgiveness, while costly, is the only sustainable path to a shared human future. He died in Cape Town in 2021.
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Quotes by Desmond Tutu
111 quotes“You don't condone what has been done. You are saying here is a chance to make a new beginning.”
“Resentment and anger are bad for our blood pressure and for our digestion.”
“Forgiving and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending that things are other than they are.”
“It is not patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong.”
“True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the degradation, the truth.”
“It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking.”
“In the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing.”
“Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.”
“Joy is a much bigger thing than happiness.”
“While happiness is often seen as being dependent on external circumstances, joy is not.”
“Joy in fact is much more closely related to gratitude.”
“There can be no joy without gratitude.”
“Discovering more joy does not save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak.”
“In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily, too.”
“Perhaps we are just more alive.”
“Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters.”
“We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreak without being broken.”
“In the end, what matters most is how well did we love, how well did we live, and how well did we learn to let go.”
“Why do you not laugh more?”
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