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Humans Quotes by Desmond Tutu

54 Humans quotes by Desmond Tutu

All Humans quotes Desmond Tutu’s page

Being human, Tutu says, means staying together across colors and backgrounds. He tells us that trust is a basic need for a healthy life, and that we all share responsibility for big problems like climate change. He also reminds us that we become full people only through other people.

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We need other human beings in order to be human.

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And every human being is precious.

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Human beings have a vested interest in being trustworthy.

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Human beings are fundamentally good.

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I am human because I belong, I participate, I share.

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Human beings can be awful, but they can also be tremendous.

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We can only be human together.

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Climate change: Never before in history have human beings been called on to act collectively in defence of the Earth

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Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.

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The destruction of the earth’s environment is the human rights challenge of our time.

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Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.

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Fundamental rights belong to the human being just because you are a human being.

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The fundamental law of human beings is interdependence. A person is a person through other persons.

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I think that most of us would say that ubuntu basically speaks about what it means to be human.

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We have allowed the interests of capital to outweigh the interests of human beings and our Earth.

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True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender,…

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There is no situation that is not transformable. There is no person who is hopeless. There is no set of circumstances that…

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We shall be free only together, black and white. We shall survive only together, black and white. We can be human only…

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People sometimes strive after and think they will find deep satisfaction for their psyches in wealth, sex or drugs, but then find…

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For goodness sake, will they hear, will white people hear what we are trying to say? Please, all we are asking you…

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I don't want a moratorium on the death penalty. I want the abolition of it. I can't understand why a country [USA]…

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Sadly, the things that we have set out as being worth striving for are not ultimately the things that satisfy human longings.…

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You know when ubuntu is there, and it is obvious when it is absent. It has to do with what it means…

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We must embrace our differences, even celebrate our diversity. We must glory in the fact that God created each of us as…

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God says "This is what I would love you to be, but I am not going to constrain you. I want it…

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What we try to do as Elders is help those who are trying to change their own societies and communities for the…

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A person is a person through other persons. None of us comes into the world fully formed. We would not know how…

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Every situation of justice is an occasion where someone is being humiliated and they want to restore their dignity. They think, "I…

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Poverty - the greatest cause of human suffering on the planet - is itself exacerbated by conflict, competition for resources, injustice, even…

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If we are to say that religion cannot be concerned with politics then we are really saying that there is a substantial…

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Africans believe in something that is difficult to render in English. We call it ubuntu, botho. It means the essence of being…

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One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that…

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The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated.

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Gaza is going to test who believes in the worth of human beings.

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We can be human only together. A person is a person to other persons.

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The world is awful but also the world is beautiful. Human beings are awful, but ultimately human beings are tremendous.

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I'm so thankful a significant majority of Americans are saying no to military intervention. We've got to find a solution that will…

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We can be human only together. A person is a person to other persons. We so desperately long for all of us…

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Even the worst dictator, there is not a single one of them who would say "Oh yes, I violate human rights." They…

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Just as I need other human beings in order to learn from them, so I also need their trust. If we aren't…

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More by Desmond Tutu

Each of us is precious to God because each of us has their name written on the palms of God's hands. And God says…

Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant.

We shall be free only together, black and white. We shall survive only together, black and white. We can be human only together, black…

Many people would be surprised that, in fact, I'm quite shy.

Too many people think that reconciliation means you soft-pedal differences.

Our Christian faith is actually very subversive of the conventional notion of success - the notion that what invests a person with worth is…

Every situation of justice is an occasion where someone is being humiliated and they want to restore their dignity.

Race should not be used to claim privileges and rights for one group, exclusively, which are denied other different groups. Then that is an…

People are able to justify immense cruelty and say that it is something that is sanctioned by their faith.

South Africa, so utterly improbably, is a beacon of hope in a dark and troubled world.

I don't often want to speak. I try to be a reasonable person and to be diplomatic, but you go to that place and…

“child of God, known by name and whose very hairs are numbered. Praise and adore God and thank him for ever and ever. Amen.”

To remain neutral in situations of injustice is to be complicit in that injustice.

It's a fantastic thing that from moment to the next moment if God were to have stopped for a split second we would disintegrate…

Once lost, trust can only be regained if we are as good as our word.