Quotes by Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) — Anglikanischer Erzbischof von Kapstadt, Anti-Apartheid-Aktivist, Friedensnobelpreisträger · Anglikanisch · Südafrika
Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) war ein südafrikanischer anglikanischer Theologe und Erzbischof von Kapstadt, der den gewaltfreien Widerstand gegen die Apartheid entscheidend prägte. Als Friedensnobelpreisträger und Leiter der Wahrheits- und Versöhnungskommission stand er für die Verbindung von christlicher Ethik, Gerechtigkeit und Vergebung, zog jedoch mit seiner Haltung zu LGBTQ+-Rechten und seiner scharfen Israel-Kritik auch kirchlichen und politischen Widerspruch auf sich. Bibellesern zeigt sein Wirken, wie biblische Motive der Nächstenliebe und Versöhnung in gesellschaftliche Transformationsprozesse hineinwirken können.
Era: Today
Recurring topics: Justice & Commitment, Guilt & Forgiveness, Grace & Redemption, Ethical Questions, Love, Freedom & Truth, Peace & Rest, Service & Love of Neighbour
Quotes by Desmond Tutu
In the end what matters is not how good we are but how good God is. Not how much we love Him but how much He loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t.
Desmond Tutu
If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. There's nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible.
Desmond Tutu
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 rights.
Desmond Tutu
I would like to share with you two simple truths: there is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no one un-deserving of forgiveness.
Desmond Tutu
In our own ways, we are all broken. Out of that brokenness, we hurt others. Forgiveness is the journey we take toward healing the broken parts. It is how we become whole again.
Desmond Tutu
Without forgiveness, there's no future.
Desmond Tutu
Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
Desmond Tutu
Of course we want fundamental changes. If that is revolution, then I am a revolutionary. Even Jesus was that; he wanted goodness, justice, and forgiveness.
Desmond Tutu
Forgiving is not forgetting; its actually remembering--remembering and not using your right to hit back. Its a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you dont want to repeat what happened.
Desmond Tutu
My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument." Good sense does not always lie with the loudest shouters, nor can we say that a large, unruly crowd is always the best arbiter of what is right.
Desmond Tutu
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.
Desmond Tutu
When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.
Desmond Tutu
Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter — you are just there in front of the fire. You don't have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.
Desmond Tutu
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.
Desmond Tutu
Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.
Desmond Tutu
We are not responsible for what breaks us, but we can be responsible for what puts us back together again. Naming the hurt is how we begin to repair our broken parts.
Desmond Tutu
We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy.
Desmond Tutu
Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.
Desmond Tutu
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
Desmond Tutu
Forgiveness is nothing less than the way we heal the world. We heal the world by healing each and every one of our hearts. The process is simple, but it is not easy.
Desmond Tutu
One of the most blasphemous consequences of injustice, especially racist injustice, is that it can make a child of God doubt that he or she is a child of God.
Desmond Tutu
In forgiving, people are not being asked to forget.
Desmond Tutu
Forgiving means abandoning your right to pay back the perpetrator in his own coin, but it is a loss that liberates the victim.
Desmond Tutu
We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.
Desmond Tutu
In dehumanizing others, they are themselves dehumanized.
Desmond Tutu
We are different so that we can know our need of one another, for no one is ultimately self-sufficient.
Desmond Tutu
You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
Desmond Tutu
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.
Desmond Tutu
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.
Desmond Tutu
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Desmond Tutu
A person is a person through other persons; you can't be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships.
Desmond Tutu
There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.
Desmond Tutu
I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't.
Desmond Tutu
To be neutral in a situation of injustice is to have chosen sides already. It is to support the status quo.
Desmond Tutu
To treat anyone as if they were less than human, less than a brother or a sister, no matter what they have done, is to contravene the very laws of our humanity.
Desmond Tutu
When I feel ashamed, it means I feel there isn’t just something wrong with what I’ve done, there is something wrong with who I am. Shame is often a hidden emotion and it can be paralyzing in its power.
Desmond Tutu
I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this. I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place.
Desmond Tutu
We shall be free only together, black and white. We shall survive only together, black and white. We can be human only together, black and white.
Desmond Tutu
When you set out to change the world, the job seems insurmountable, but each of us can do his or her small part to effect change. We change the world when we choose to create a world of forgiveness in our own hearts and minds.
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
94 quotes in total — browse the collection.
Sources: independent.co.ug, justice.gov.za, anglican.ink, theafricancourier.de
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