Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu, CHis a South African social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionReligious Leader
Date of Birth7 October 1931
CityKlerksdorp, South Africa
crazy gay choices
We struggled against apartheid because we were being blamed and made to suffer for something we could do nothing about. It is the same with homosexuality. The orientation is a given, not a matter of choice. It would be crazy for someone to choose to be gay, given the homophobia that is present.
dance war evil
As much as the world has an instinct for evil and is a breeding ground for genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, war, oppression, and injustice, the world has an even greateer instinct for goodness, rebirth, mercy, beauty, truth, freedom and love.
thinking compassion people
Frequently people think compassion and love are merely sentimental. No! They are very demanding. If you are going to be compassionate, be prepared for action.
thinking favors vicious
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.
ubuntu humanity language
Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'
happens i-can
I can't control what happens to me, but I can control how I respond to it.
quality foundation equitable
Inclusive, good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.
inspiring god freedom
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.
race color visions-of-the-future
I've often been a little concerned by people who say they are color-blind, people who claim, in some ways, not to be aware of race, and I hope that those who will be looking for a vision of the future will be a little more honest, and say race actually does matter.
past long faces
As long as we fail to face up to the past and deal with it accordingly, the future will smack of corruption.
inspirational family cute-relationship
You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
love-is sides conflict
God's love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion.
thinking israel land
When you go to the Holy Land and see what's being done to the Palestinians at checkpoints, for us, it's the kind of thing we experienced in South Africa. Whether you want to say Israel practices apartheid is immaterial. They are doing things, given their history, you think, "Do you remember what happened to you?" Then they clobber you and say, "You are anti-Semitic."
law fundamentals collaboration
The fundamental law of human beings is interdependence. A person is a person through other persons.