Desmond Tutu

Before Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962, he was an angry, relatively young man. He founded the ANC's military wing. When he was released, he surprised everyone because he was talking about reconciliation and forgiveness and not about revenge.

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you've closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

Without forgiveness, there's no future.

In God's family, there are no outsiders, no enemies.

God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion.

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

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

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.

Inclusive, good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.

When we see the face of a child, we think of the future. We think of their dreams about what they might become, and what they might accomplish.

I mean in the South African case, many of those who were part of death squads would have been respectable members of their white community, people who went to church on Sunday, every Sunday.

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that's where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.

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

Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?