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 to be possessed of an idiotic optimism.”
“It is to be excited that history is open and the future is not predetermined.”
“As Christians we believe firmly in the power of prayer.”
“Prayer changes things and it changes us.”
“Stillness is not just our refuge. It is our home.”
“There is something called a victim mentality. It is rampant in many of our communities.”
“Until we move beyond the victim mindset, we cannot enter into our promise.”
“You have to recognize that things in fact will get better.”
“Hope says, 'There is something better.' Hope is not blind. Hope is being able to see beyond the suffering.”
“To say there is hope is to know that we will be transformed by God.”
“And to wait for the day when justice will roll down like a mighty stream.”
“And we will love one another as brothers and sisters.”
“My great hope is that we will see one another as fellow human beings.”
“Made for goodness, we are also made by goodness, for our God is good.”
“Our God is loving. Our God is kind.”
“This is my dream, that one day God's vision will become reality on earth.”
“That one day there will be no Israelis or Palestinians, no Catholics or Protestants, no blacks or whites — only children of God.”
“That this dream comes true and we are reconciled to one another, to God, and to creation.”
“This is the dream that God dreams when looking at the world that God so loves.”
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