This week, as we mourn the loss of Archbishop Demond Tutu, we're looking back on his quotes, sayings, and words of wisdom.
Desmond Tutu spent his life fighting injustice, maintaining a genuine sense of hope and joy, and inspiring a new generation to do the same.
13 Desmond Tutu Quotes to Leave You Feeling More Hopeful, and Ready To Make a Difference:
1. “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.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
2. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
→ Read more quotes about activism
3. “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
→ Read the best quotes about hope and quotes about optimism
4. “If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
5. “Discovering more joy does not save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
6. “If you are setting out to be joyful you are not going to end up being joyful. You’re going to find yourself turned in on yourself. It’s like a flower. You open, you blossom, really because of other people. And I think some suffering, maybe even intense suffering, is a necessary ingredient for life, certainly for developing compassion.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
7. “Despair can come from deep grief, but it can also be a defense against the risks of bitter disappointment and shattering heartbreak. Resignation and cynicism are easier, more self-soothing postures that do not require raw vulnerability and tragic risk of hope. To choose hope is to step firmly forward into the howling wind, baring one's chest to the elements, knowing that, in time, the storm will pass.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
→ Read the best quotes about hope and optimism
8. “God places us in the world as his fellow workers-agents of transfiguration. We work with God so that injustice is transfigured into justice, so there will be more compassion and caring, that there will be more laughter and joy, that there will be more togetherness in God's world.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
9. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
10. “We are each made for goodness, love, and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
11. “I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
12. “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.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
13. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
As we read, absorb, and take action based on these quotes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, may we continue his work of filling the world with more peace, justice, and hope.
