Quotes by Desmond Tutu

• Our ability to empathize with others is a reflection of our own humanity.
• 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.
• Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.
• My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.
• 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.
• If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
• 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.
• I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.
• 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.
• Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.
• Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.
• A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.
• You must show the world that you abhor fighting.
• You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
• Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
• 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.
• 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.
• What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?
• We would like to see you departing peacefully.
• We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.
• 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.
• Without forgiveness, there's no future.
• Forgiveness is not always easy, but it is the path to freedom and peace.
• In the midst of conflict, kindness is truly a revolutionary act.
• Don't raise your voice, improve your argument.
• Forgiveness is the key to unlocking the prison of resentment and setting yourself free.
• Don't raise your voice; Improve your argument.
• Do not raise your voice, improve your argument.
• Don't raise your voice, improve your argument