‘I won’t shut up’: Memorable quotes from Desmond Tutu
Reuters
Updated:
South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
(Reuters) — South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a veteran of the struggle against white minority rule, died on Sunday aged 90.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was an outspoken campaigner who made people sit up and listen the world over.
Here are some of his memorable quotes:
“Don’t raise your voice. Improve your argument.”
“We need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
“Without forgiveness, there’s no future.”
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
“I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.”
FILE – Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, March 21, 2003. Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died at the age of 90, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
FILE – President Barack Obama presents a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Desmond Tutu, widely regarded as “South Africa’s moral conscience,” who was a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa., Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE – Retiring Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, right, greets President Nelson Mandela at a service in Cape Town, Sunday June 23, 1996 held to celebrate the end of Tutu’s tenure as leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa. Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (AP Photo/Guy Tillim, File)
FILE – Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, left, holds a microphone as Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama gestures, as they interact with children at the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Dharmsala, India, Thursday, April 23, 2015. Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia, File)
FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry, left, looks on as South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu waves at people during his visit to The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa Monday, Nov. 30, 2015, Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam, File)
FILE – Pope John Paul II and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu during an audience the pontiff granted to Southern African Catholic Bishops and South African Council of Churches delegations, at the Vatican City May 27, 1980. Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti, File)
FILE – President Ronald Reagan, left, meets with South African Bishop Desmond Tutu at the White House, Friday, Dec. 7, 1984, Washington, D.C. Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma, File)
FILE – South African Bishop Desmond Tutu waves during a speech against apartheid, to a crowd of demonstrators, on Jan. 8, 1986, outside the South African Embassy in Washington. South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and the retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died at the age of 90, it was announced on Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. An uncompromising foe of apartheid, South Africa’s brutal regime of oppression again the Black majority, Tutu worked tirelessly, but non-violently, for its downfall. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)
South Africa’s Desmond Tutu, Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, reacts about Israel blocked Tutu’s UN mission to Beit Hanun, during a press conference at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Dec. 11, 2006. South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
FILE – Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa gestures during the opening concert for the soccer World Cup at Orlando stadium in Soweto, South Africa, Thursday, June 10, 2010. Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. He was 90. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)