Inspirational Quotes
Words to motivate, inspire, and guide you.
Desmond Tutu Quotes
ResponsibilityDutyHumanityLeadership In many ways, when you're a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.
EvilJusticePerseverance I've never doubted that apartheid - because it was of itself fundamentally, intrinsically evil - was going to bite the dust eventually.
HypocrisyMorality I mean in the South African case, many of those who were part of death squads would have been respectable members of their white community, people who went to church on Sunday, every Sunday.
LoveHopeHuman WorthValue of Life Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.
EducationResponsibilityChildrenMorality It is our moral obligation to give every child the very best education possible.
God's GraceForgivenessAcceptance We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.
KindnessResponsibilityCommunityImpact Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
ColonialismExploitationLandPowerReligion 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.
ApartheidSegregationRacism I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.
EducationMoralityEconomicsSelf-SufficiencyNational Development Universal education is not only a moral imperative but an economic necessity, to pave the way toward making many more nations self-sufficient and self-sustaining.
PrayerSupportFaithCommunity 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.
Racial DiscriminationVoting RightsInequalityInjustice 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.
Divine ImageDiversityHumanity Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?
ForgivenessNew BeginningsSecond Chances Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.
ChildrenInsightTruthInnocence 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.
RecognitionInfluenceMoralePerseveranceHope The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it - oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.
ShameHistoryAtrocityAccountability In its history, Europe has committed so many massacres and horrors that it should bow its own head in shame.
RightsEqualityDignity 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.
InclusionFreedomJustice Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.
EducationEqualitySocietyDevelopment Inclusive, good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.
RacismDiscriminationSlaveryHuman Rights 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.
GodForesightKnowledgeDivine Wisdom But God can only smile because only God can know what is coming next.
ForesightWarningBlameInjustice 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.
FamilyTogethernessGoodnessCompassion God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion.
HumanityRecognitionUnderstandingEquality 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.
OnenessHumanitySpiritualityCelebration The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated.
GodFaithDiversityAcceptance God is not upset that Gandhi was not a Christian, because God is not a Christian! All of God's children and their different faiths help us to realize the immensity of God.
Social AcceptancePopularityHuman BehaviorPreferencesApproval I think that most of us would prefer to be popular than unpopular.
KindnessHumanityRespectUnitySelf-Improvement Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.
ExploitationWealth InequalityPower DynamicsHistorical Context Europe became rich because it exploited Africa; and the Africans know that.
EvilGenocideMoral ResponsibilitySystemic IssuesHuman Nature When you think of the sort of things that happen when a genocide happens, it's again not people who are intrinsically evil.
OppressionLegal SegregationHuman RightsResistanceMoral Unity In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.
Non-ViolenceGlobal SolidaritySocial JusticePeaceOppression In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.
RemembranceUniquenessMemory 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.
EnemyConflict ResolutionCourageLeadershipConfidence Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that's where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.
ForgivenessInitiativeRenewalLetting Go 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.
SupportUnityFoundationCollaboration You stand out in the crowd only because you have these many, many carrying you on their shoulders.