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“It is in your service of others that you find your fulfillment.”
“You are someone special, made by God in His image, and you are loved by God beyond reckoning.”
“You are infinitely loved, and so is every single one of God's children.”
“Every situation in your life is a chance to be transformed by God.”
“Children of God do not become extinct.”
“God places us in the world as His fellow workers — agents of transfiguration.”
“We work with God so that injustice is transfigured into justice.”
“We bring God's love and laughter and joy and concern to the lonely and the unloved, the aged and the dying.”
“Together with God we are transfiguring the world.”
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.”
“Liberation is costly. Even after the apartheid government had agreed to free Mandela, it tried to stall.”
“At the dark time, even the smallest pinprick of light seems blindingly bright.”
“My father used to say, 'Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument.'”
“Be nice to whites; they need you to rediscover their humanity.”
“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.”
“Don't push me when I'm grieving.”
“You should be quaking in your boots, because we are coming — not with the AK-47, but with the warm power of love.”
“Speak the truth in love.”
“The God I worship is no monster. God so respects our freedom that he allowed evil to flourish even though he did not approve of it.”
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