Desmond Tutu

“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.”

“We would like to see you departing peacefully.”

“All the United States, it is a society that is split like to the bottom, that had very poor people in the country that is one of the wealthiest countries.”

“God's love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion.”

“I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't.”

“I'm actually very humbled listening to His Holiness,' the Archbishop said, 'because I've frequently mentioned to people the fact of his serenity and his calm and joyfulness. We would probably have said 'in spite of' the adversity, but it seems like he's saying 'because of' the adversity that this has evolved for him.”

“My message to the international community is that our silence and complicity especially on the situation in Gaza shames us all. It is almost like the behaviour of the military junta in Burma”

“What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?”

“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.”

“For Christians, who believe they are created in the image of God, it is the Godhead, diversity in unity and the three-in-oneness of God, which we and all creation reflect.”

“I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.”

“If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”

“It is our moral obligation to give every child the very best education possible.”

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

“Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter — you are just there in front of the fire. You don't have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.”

“We inhabit a universe that is characterized by diversity.”

“Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.”