Quote

God loved me before I actually was.

Desmond Tutu

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Desmond Tutu
Age: 93
Born: 1931
Born: October 7
Activist
Anglican Priest
Non-Fiction Writer
Archbisphop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu
Loved
Actually

More quotes by Desmond Tutu

Image
We mustn't romanticize suffering. It can turn people bitter and hard, although it does seem to have been almost indispensable in making people into the kind of leaders that we admire.
Desmond Tutu
Image
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.
Desmond Tutu
Image
Men and boys, we show our manhood through the way we treat our women. Our wives, our sisters, our mothers.
Desmond Tutu
Image
I don't know any religion that promotes violence. It is the adherents of whatever religion.
Desmond Tutu
Image
People are killed because they're gay. I don't think, What do I want to do today? I want to speak up on gay rights. No. It's God catching me by my neck. I wish I could keep quiet about the plight of the Palestinians. I can't!
Desmond Tutu
Image
We need to be accountable to God's family. Once we start living in a way that is people-friendly to all of God's family, we will also be environment-friendly.
Desmond Tutu
Image
There are very good Christians who are compassionate and caring. And there are very bad Christians. You can say that about Islam, about Hinduism, about any faith. That is why I was saying that it was not the faith per se but the adherent. People will use their religion to justify virtually anything.
Desmond Tutu
Image
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.
Desmond Tutu
Image
You have seen after Katrina just what failures there are in American Society.
Desmond Tutu
Image
It is for real that injustice and oppression will not have the last word. There was a time when Hitler looked like he was going to vanquish all of Europe, and where is he now?
Desmond Tutu
Image
God looks at the Middle East, looks at Palestine. 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.
Desmond Tutu
Image
Those of us who came to be Christians get to remember that forgiveness cost God the death of God's son. It's an expensive thing in many ways.
Desmond Tutu
Image
We can be human only together. A person is a person to other persons.
Desmond Tutu
Image
The leaders that the world admires seem almost all to be people who haven't had things quite so smooth or easy in their lives.
Desmond Tutu
Image
All people would really want peace and all would want to be sure that they would not be taken advantage of.
Desmond Tutu
Image
We will only truly be free when those in bondage are finally free
Desmond Tutu
Image
All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others
Desmond Tutu
Image
I can't control what happens to me, but I can control how I respond to it.
Desmond Tutu
Image
We get most upset with those we love because they are close to us and we know that they are aware of our weaknesses. . . If only we could learn to live with our inadequacies, our frailties, our vulnerabilities, we would not need to try so hard to push away those who really know us.
Desmond Tutu
Image
Forgiveness and reconciliation are not just ethereal, spiritual, other-worldly activities. They have to do with the real world. They are realpolitik, because in a very real sense, without forgiveness, there is no future.
Desmond Tutu