"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.“


-Desmond Tutu

posted in religion


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.

Other Quotes You Might Like

Discover more inspiring quotes from our collection

"All the United States, it is a society that is split like to the bottom, that had very poor people in the country that is one of the wealthiest countries."

-Desmond Tutu

societyView Quote
"In many ways, when you're a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society."

-Desmond Tutu

societyView Quote
"But God can only smile because only God can know what is coming next."

-Desmond Tutu

smileView Quote
"God's love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion."

-Desmond Tutu

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

-Desmond Tutu

religionView Quote
"I don't think I've ever felt that same kind of peace, the kind of serenity that I felt after acknowledging that maybe I was going to die of this TB."

-Desmond Tutu

peaceView Quote

More Quotes About religion

Explore other inspiring quotes in this category

"Civilisation has ever accompanied emigration and conquest - the conflict of opinion, of religion, or of race."

-Alfred Russel Wallace

religionView Quote
"Religion is no more the parent of morality than an incubator is the mother of a chicken."

-Lemuel K. Washburn

religionView Quote
"I appreciate the 'Surreal Life.' I had a really positive experience on that show, and with those people. I found some love in my heart for religion again, and had the support of a new family of friends. I wouldn't have had the pleasure of meeting those people, if we were not all placed in that fishbowl."

-Vince Neil

religionView Quote
"Contradictory to my religion, I think, is journalism."

-Sydney Schanberg

religionView Quote
"Religion is the idol of the mob it adores everything it does not understand."

-Frederick II

religionView Quote
"When men take pleasure in feeling their minds elevated with strong drink, and so indulge their appetite as to disorder their understandings, neglect their duty as members of a family or civil society, and cast off all regard to religion, their case is much to be pitied."

-John Woolman

religionView Quote