heartsteps

In his four decades at the forefront of public life, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been forthright in his views on the situation at home and abroad.

Here is a selection of his memorable quotes on a variety of topics:

Apartheid

Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity – October 1984

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 human rights – January 1985

Sanctions

Your president is the pits as far as blacks are concerned. I think the West, for my part, can go to hell – July 1986, when US President Ronald Reagan opposed sanctions proposals

Unbanning of ANC

He [South Africa President FW De Klerk] has taken my breath away – February 1990

Coining “The Rainbow Nation”

At home in South Africa I have sometimes said in big meetings where you have black and white together: “Raise your hands!”
Then I have said: “Move your hands,” and I’ve said, “Look at your hands – different colours representing different people.

“You are the Rainbow People of God.” – December 1991

Justice

Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion – January 2000

Perpetrators don’t have horns, don’t have tails, they are as ordinary looking as you and I. The people who supported Hitler were not demons, they were often very respectable people – February 2006

Reconciliation

Who in their right mind could have believed South Africa could be an example of anything but the most awful ghastliness? We are such an unlikely lot – January 2000

Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe

He’s almost a caricature of all the things people think black African leaders do. He seems to be wanting to make a cartoon of himself – April 2000

Israel

People are scared in this country [the US] to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful – very powerful.

The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists.

Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosovic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust – April 2002

Himself

One time I was in San Francisco when a lady rushed up, very warmly greeted me, and said, “Hello Archbishop Mandela.” Sort of getting two for the price of one – March 2004

South Africa’s future

At the moment many, too many, of our people live in gruelling, demeaning and dehumanising poverty. We are sitting on a powder keg – November 2004

Spat with South Africa’s then-President Thabo Mbeki

Thank you Mr President for telling me what you think of me.

That I am a liar with scant regard for the truth and a charlatan posing with his concern for the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the voiceless – November 2004

Fashion

His [Nelson Mandela's] sartorial taste is the pits!

He’s such a lovely guy, but he was nasty to me when I publicly commented on it. He said the critique was pretty amusing coming from a man who wears a dress – October 2006

Barbecues

This is something that can unite us.

We have 11 different official languages but only one word for the wonderful institution of braai (barbecue): in Xhosa, English, Afrikaans, whatever – September 2007

Homosexuality and the Church

If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God – November 2007

The Nobel Peace Prize

A kid asked me a few years ago, “What do you do to get the prize?”

I said, “It’s very easy, you just need three things – you must have an easy name, like Tutu for example, you must have a large nose and you must have sexy legs.” – July 2009

O Earth, wrap me
in your leaves -
heal me.

Let me fall
under Earthbreast -
feed me.

Sing to me
under the round nests
in your cedar trees.

Embrace me
when I sleep
in your shade.

Let your eye keep me
protected and cool -
hide me.

Warm me
with naked summer
kisses and

Cloister me
Around
with wild flowers.

Refresh me
with springs
and living waters.

Draw me down
into your well
of rebirth and

Let my wounds
Open
and empty

Into your wonderful
Compost
heap.

Then fill me
with your fruit
and bread, start over,

Let my wounds
become fertile
gardens and

Let me be,
let me live
again.

Alla Renee Bozarth

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters,
of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you,
but not from you,
and though they are with you,
yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love,
but not your thoughts,
for they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies,
but not their souls,
for their souls
dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you,
for life does not go backward,
nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows,
from which your children,
as living arrows,
are sent forth.

Kahlil Gibran

Luke 19:28-40, Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11

Jesus tells us that even the stones
would cry out if we kept silent.
How do we,
now the stones’ vocal cords,
express our awe?

The weight of pink cherry blossoms
drooping against the blue sky,
and the return of the yellow and oranges faces
we call “daffodil” leave us speechless.
Even as the word leaves our lips,
it must be followed by a confession
that are naming of things
domesticates the wild mystery of life
and manages the “spell of the sensuous”,
which threatens to stop us in our tracks
and grind the industry of our “getting and spending”
to a blessed halt.

We consent to this Sabbath from certainty,
Holy One,
so that we might be re-initiated into the mystery
of life on this planet,
this blue jewel came to life–
Love’s project–
and came to consciousness in us
so that we might break the stony silence
with praise for you,
whom we’ve learned never to bet against.
Amen.

Bruce Sanguin

I sing
of the beauty of Athens
without its slaves

Of a world free
of kings and queens
and other remnants
of an arbitrary past

Of earth
with no
sharp north
or deep south
without blind curtains
or iron walls

of the end
of warlords and armouries
and prisons of hate and fear

Of deserts treeing
and fruiting
after quickening rains

Of the sun
radiating ignorance
and stars informing
nights of unknowing

I sing of a world reshaped

Niyi Osundare

On a day when the wind is perfect,
the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.
Today is such a day.
My eyes are like the sun that makes promises;
the promise of life that it always
keeps each morning.
The living heart gives to us as does that luminous sphere,
both caress the earth with great tenderness.
This is a breeze that can enter the soul.
This love I know plays a drum. Arms move around me;
who can contain their self before my beauty?
Peace is wonderful,
but ecstatic dance is more fun, and less narcissistic;
gregarious He makes our lips.
On a day when the wind is perfect,
the sail just needs to open
and the love starts.
Today is such a day.

The greatest good is like water:
it benefits all life without being noticed.
It flows even to the lowliest places
where no one chooses to be
and so it is very close to the Tao.
It settles only in quiet locations.
Its deepest heart is always clear.
It offers itself with great goodness.
It keeps its rhythm as it keeps its promises.
It governs tributaries as it governs its people.
It adapts to all necessities.
It moves at the right moment.
It never flaunts its goodness
and so it never attracts any blame.

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 8

The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God-seed into God.

Meister Eckhart

For God to me,
it seems, is a verb,
not a noun, proper or improper;
is the articulation not the art,
objective or subjective;
is loving, not the abstraction “love”
commanded or entreated;
is knowledge dynamic,
not legislative code,
not proclamation law,
not academic dogma,
nor ecclesiastic canon.
Yes, God is a verb, the most active,
connoting the vast harmonic reordering,
of the universe,
from unleashed chaos of energy.
And there is born unheralded
a great natural peace,
not out of exclusive pseudo-static security,
but out of including, refining,
dynamic balancing.
Naught is loss.
Only the false and nonexistent are dispelled.

Buckminster Fuller

People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centred.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, interior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Theresa