Quotes by Desmond Tutu

About Desmond Tutu:

Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Desmond Tutu

Racism, xenophobia and unfair discrimination have spawned slavery, when human beings have bought and sold and owned and branded fellow human beings as if they were so many beasts of burden.

Desmond Tutu

A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.

Desmond Tutu

Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.

Desmond Tutu

We would like to see you departing peacefully.

Desmond Tutu

And every human being is precious.

Desmond Tutu

Many people would be surprised that, in fact, I'm quite shy.

Desmond Tutu

Europe became rich because it exploited Africa; and the Africans know that.

Desmond Tutu

It's a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.

Desmond Tutu

As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.

Desmond Tutu

Those who invest in South Africa should not think they are doing us a favor; they are here for what they get out of our cheap and abundant labor, and they should know that they are buttressing one of the most vicious systems.

Desmond Tutu

You must show the world that you abhor fighting.

Desmond Tutu

Oh, 1994, April 27. There won't be a day like that ever again. I mean, the sky was blue, with a blueness that had never been there before.

Desmond Tutu

I certainly know that I would not be able to survive if it were not for the fact that I am being upheld by the prayers of so many people.

Desmond Tutu

Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.

Desmond Tutu

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

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

Niger is not an isolated island of desperation. It lies within a sea of problems across Africa - particularly the 'forgotten emergencies' in poor countries or regions with little strategic or material appeal.

Desmond Tutu

The universe can take quite a while to deliver.

Desmond Tutu

You stand out in the crowd only because you have these many, many carrying you on their shoulders.

Desmond Tutu

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

Author Bio

  • NameDesmond Tutu
  • DescriptionSouth African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner
  • BornOctober 7, 1931
  • CountrySouth Africa
  • ProfessionAnglican Priest; Activist; Non-fiction Writer
  • AwardsNobel Peace Prize; Presidential Medal Of Freedom; Templeton Prize; Four Freedoms Award - Freedom Of Worship; Giuseppe Motta Medal; Light Of Truth Award; Monismanien Prize; Pacem In Terris Award; Delta Prize For Global Understanding