Desmond Tutu

Universal education is not only a moral imperative but an economic necessity, to pave the way toward making many more nations self-sufficient and self-sustaining.

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

Hate has no place in the house of God.

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

I think that most of us would prefer to be popular than unpopular.

And every human being is precious.

Oh, 1994, April 27. There won't be a day like that ever again. I mean, the sky was blue, with a blueness that had never been there before.

We would like to see you departing peacefully.

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

Racism, xenophobia and unfair discrimination have spawned slavery, when human beings have bought and sold and owned and branded fellow human beings as if they were so many beasts of burden.

It's a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.

In many ways, when you're a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.

In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute - a white skin.

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

People often speak of God being even-handed. God is not even-handed. God is biased, in favor of the weak, of the despised.

God is patient with us to become the God's children he wants us to be but you really can see him weeping.

We inhabit a universe that is characterized by diversity.

In its history, Europe has committed so many massacres and horrors that it should bow its own head in shame.

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

I don't think I've ever felt that same kind of peace, the kind of serenity that I felt after acknowledging that maybe I was going to die of this TB.