We shall be free only together, black and white. We shall survive only together, black and white. We can be human only together, black and white.
Interpretation
Unity among people of all races is essential for freedom and humanity.
Desmond Tutu emphasizes the importance of solidarity and cooperation between different races for achieving true freedom and understanding humanity. He asserts that real survival and humanity can only be realized when people come together, irrespective of color, highlighting the interconnectedness of the human experience.
In practice
This quote can be used in speeches advocating for racial equality.
The fossil reserves that have already been discovered exceed what can ever be safely used. Yet companies spend half a trillion dollars each year searching for more fuel. They should redirect this money toward developing clean energy solutions
As much as the world has an instinct for evil and is a breeding ground for genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, war, oppression, and injustice, the world has an even greateer instinct for goodness, rebirth, mercy, beauty, truth, freedom and love.
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.
Gaza is going to test who believes in the worth of human beings.
I've always kinda been a little outcast myself, a little oddball, doin' my thing, my own way. And it's been hard for me to, to be accepted, certainly in the early years of my life.
I don't wait for people to give me respect. I always give them respect.
The act of forgiveness takes place in our own mind. It really has nothing to do with the other person.
With soldiers, their wives are so fundamental in their relationships, and yet there's this kind of other war happening back in the States, where wives of soldiers don't quite understand what their husbands have been through, because their husbands won't really talk about it, and that's really the hidden war.
Generally speaking, we as black people have been celebrated more for when we are subservient when we are not being leaders or kings or in the center of our own narrative driving it forward.
The young woman was crying, in the way that grownups cry, keeping it inside as much as they can, and hating it when it still pushes out at the edges, making them ugly and funny-looking on the way.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.