Desmond Tutu

"When deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive."

"God says to you, I have already fixed it all. You are already okay. Just enjoy your life."

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

"I love being who I am. I wish I could convey that sense of self-acceptance to young people. You are okay as you are."

"Our children are not going to be just 'our children' - they are going to be other people's husbands and wives. And if we don't help them to grow with the values we really believe in, we are going to be very disappointed."

"The radical thing Jesus was saying was, Loving God is inseparable from loving your neighbor. The two cannot be separated."

"I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward."

"The cry of the poor is not always just a cry for charity; it is a cry for justice."

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

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."

"We don't pray to change God's mind. We pray to change ours."

"Leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge."

"In our country, we have not always shown humility in our dealings with those who have been converted to our faith. We sometimes forget that there was a time when we too were not Christian."

"You are a wonder, a marvel, you really are! You can do things you don't even imagine you can do. So don't underestimate yourself."

"If you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it."

"Let's say that the god of the bible is not homophobic. Let's say that this god loves all the children equally. And let me tell you something: if there was a god that was homophobic, I would not worship that god."

"The work of the church is to prophesy, to speak truth to power."

"I would say to the officers who carried out the torture, you needn't be afraid. You will be forgiven. Anything you have done will be forgiven."

"We must get alongside young people to listen to what they are saying."

"I have been so fortunate. I have known such lovely people. I have been privileged to do what I believe is the right thing."

"The wonderful thing about being human is our capacity to grow, to change, to become something more than we were."

"I wish I were a bird so I could fly away from all these problems in the world. But I'm not; I'm human, so I must help solve them."

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."

"We are not going to have a future society that works for anybody if we continue to have such wide disparities of wealth."

"Be careful of the kind of legacy you will leave. Live so that when you depart this world, those you leave behind can say that you lived a good life."

"I think one of the greatest traumas of our time is that many people no longer believe that the world can change."

"You can't create new oceans. You can only create new ships. So let's teach young people to build new ships."

"It is dangerous to be a true prophet. It is dangerous to speak truth to power."

"The fact that you are reading this sentence means you are part of the solution. Thank you."

"This is my God - the God of the vulnerable, the God of those who suffer, the God of the despised and rejected."