Quotes from Desmond Tutu

People will use their religion to justify virtually anything.

Each person is a V.S.P. (a Very Special Person) because we are each created in the image of God.

And every human being is precious.

But God can only smile because only God can know what is coming next.

The abolition of the death penalty is making us a civilized society. It shows we actually do mean business when we say we have reverence for life.

There is a story, which is fairly well known, about when the missionaries came to Africa. They had the Bible and we, the natives, had the land. They said "Let us pray," and we dutifully shut our eyes. When we opened them, why, they now had the land and we had the Bible.

Having looked the beast of the past in the eye, having asked and received forgiveness and having made amends, let us shut the door on the past—not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us.

Inclusive, good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.

Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you've closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.