Desmond Tutu

Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Dream. Dream. Dream. Be like God, dream because God believes in you young people. Most of God’s best collaborators and partners have been young people. Joseph, David, Jeremiah, St. Francis. They are young, young, young. And in many ways Jesus was young. Many of those who have been God’s best works — fellow workers have been young. And don’t allow oldies to fill you with their cynicism and disillusionment. Dream. Dream that this world can become better as you do dream, in fact. I mean, when these young people go off and work as Peace Corps and other volunteering groups in poverty stricken places where they don’t get any better headlines for dreaming the good things. Dream. Dream. Dream. Dream that this can be a world without poverty. Dream that this can be a world without war. Dream that this is a world that will recognize that every human being matters.

Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

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Derek Sivers Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
Yeah, anybody asks me about it, my advice was always, do not do it. In fact, it still is. Somebody just asked me last week, I was like, do not do it.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 23 April 2023 source ↗
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf President of Liberia, 2006–2018
So I urge my sisters, and my brothers, not to be afraid. Be not afraid to denounce injustice, though you may be outnumbered. Be not afraid to seek peace, even if your voice may be small. Be not afraid to demand peace.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2011 source ↗
David Vélez Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank
Primero, lanzarse, incluso sin tener todas las respuestas. Segundo, tener resiliencia y disciplina, porque los mercados son volátiles. Tercero, buscar grandes problemas del consumidor. Muchas oportunidades nacen de la frustración.
Recorded Alejandra Rico Muñoz, interview, La República, 25 March 2026 source ↗
Frank M. Johnson Jr. United States district judge, Middle District of Alabama, 1955–1979; judge of the Eleventh Circuit
Study. Be honest. Don’t violate the laws and get in trouble. Get you a good spouse that will support you, because you never stop working and studying. The fact that you get the place just means you’ve started as far as the work and the pressure is concerned. That’s the only advice I’d know to give.
Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 16 March 1991 source ↗

More from Desmond Tutu

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Question If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change? Failure & regret
I sent off the letter. I probably made a technical mistake by giving it to a journalist before hearing from the Prime Minister because this journalist was working for a Sunday newspaper and gave it enormous press, and I think quite rightly the Prime Minister was annoyed that I had not given him the opportunity but never mind.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗
Question What do you need to believe in order to get through an ordinary day? Values & belief
Many of us had moments when we doubted that apartheid would be defeated, certainly not in our lifetime. But, I never had that sense. I knew in a way that was unshakable, because you see, when you look at something like Good Friday, and saw God dead on the cross, nothing could have been more hopeless than Good Friday. And then, Easter happens, and whammo! Death is done to death, and Jesus breaks the shackles of death and devastation, of darkness, of evil. And, from that moment on, you see, all of us are constrained to be prisoners of hope. If God could do this with that utterly devastating thing, the desolation of a Good Friday, of the cross, well, what could stop God then from bringing good out of this great evil of apartheid? So, I never doubted that ultimately we were going to be free because ultimately, I knew there was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗
Question What accomplishment matters most to you? Craft & work
One moment, Nelson Mandela is in jail, and the next moment, he is walking, a free man. One moment, we are shackled as the oppressed of apartheid; the next, we are voting for the very first time. I was 63 when I voted for the first time in my life in the country of my birth. Nelson Mandela was 76 years of age. But it happened, it happened. It happened partly because the international community supported us. People prayed for us. People demonstrated on our behalf, especially young people. Students at universities and college campuses used to sit out in the baking sunshine to force their institutions to divest and the miracle happened. We became free because we were helped and we want to say a big “thank you” to the world. And, you can become free nonviolently.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗
Question Which problem are you still chipping away at? Craft & work
So a great deal has changed, but we in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said, “Watch it. You can kiss reconciliation and forgiveness goodbye, unless the gap between the rich and the poor — the haves and the have-nots — is narrowed, and narrowed quickly and dramatically.” So yes, we face very, very considerable problems.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗
Question As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself? Identity & self
I know that for a very long time my consuming passion, which was confirmed when I contracted TB — I had TB when I was about 12 or so — was I wanted to be a physician and when I got TB I was even more determined. I want to be physician so that I can find a cure for the scourge. And, in fact, I was admitted to medical school. If we had had the funds maybe today I would have been a physician.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

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