A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.
— Desmond TutuAddress at his enthronement as Anglican archbishop of Cape Town (7 September 1986)
Use itGS4/Essay on Ubuntu; personhood comes from recognising others' humanity.
Quotes / Thinkers / Desmond Tutu
Thinker · 12 quotes
Desmond Tutu quotes for UPSC
12 sourced quotes by Desmond Tutu on justice & rule of law, compassion & empathy, democracy & freedom, equality & social justice, peace, non-violence & conflict, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
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None of us can say that had I been exposed to the same circumstances and conditions that I wouldn't have turned out the same way. Perpetrators don't have horns, don't have tails, they are as ordinary looking as you and I.
— Desmond TutuAs quoted in "The Go-Between" at BBC News (27 February 2006)
Use itGS4: perpetrators are ordinary people shaped by circumstance; humility in judging others.
Forgiveness is taking seriously the awfulness of what has happened when you are treated unfairly. It is opening the door for the other person to have a chance to begin again. Without forgiveness, resentment builds in us, a resentment which turns into hostility and anger. Hatred eats away at our well-being.
— Desmond TutuWithout Forgiveness There Is No Future (1998)
Use itGS4: forgiveness acknowledges wrong yet frees us from resentment and hatred.
We don't want apartheid liberalized. We want it dismantled. You can't improve something that is intrinsically evil.
— Desmond TutuSpeech (1985) as quoted in Equality, Volume 1, Issue 1 (1989)
Use itEssay on caste/untouchability or apartheid; evil systems must be dismantled, not reformed.
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 TutuWallenberg Lecture (2008)
Use itEssay conclusion: injustice and oppression never have the final word.
There are different kinds of justice. Retributive justice is largely Western. The African understanding is far more restorative - not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew.
— Desmond TutuAs quoted in "Recovering from Apartheid" at The New Yorker (18 November 1996)
Use itGS2/GS4 on restorative vs retributive justice; aim to restore balance, not merely punish.
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.
— Desmond TutuAs quoted in Unexpected News : Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes (1984) by Robert McAfee Brown, p. 19
Use itGS4/Essay: neutrality in injustice sides with the oppressor; argue for moral courage.
Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant.
— Desmond TutuHope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches (1984)
Use itEssay/GS2: liberty erodes when good citizens are not vigilant.
People marched and demonstrated, and the Berlin Wall fell, and communism was ended. People marched and demonstrated, and apartheid ended. And democracy and freedom were born. And now people are marching, and people are demonstrating, because people are saying no to war!
Use itEssay on people's power and peaceful protest toppling walls and apartheid.
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.
— Desmond TutuToday, NBC TV (9 January 1985)
Use itGS2/Essay on rights-based approach; demand full rights, not charity or crumbs of compassion.
Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations.
— Desmond TutuAs quoted in "Truth and reconciliation" at BBC Focus on Africa (January-March 2000)
Use itEssay/GS2 on reconciliation; without forgiveness no future for people or nations.
History, like beauty, depends largely on the beholder, so when you read that, for example, David Livingstone discovered the Victoria Falls, you might be forgiven for thinking that there was nobody around the Falls until Livingstone arrived on the scene.
— Desmond TutuHope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches (1984)
Use itGS1/Essay on colonial historiography; history depends on whose perspective tells it.