"In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters"
About this Quote
The key word is “possibility.” He’s not claiming we already live as “brothers, sisters”; he’s warning that solidarity is fragile, contingent, reversible. Tibet becomes a test case for whether compassion can survive contact with power. If a small culture can be crushed with impunity, the subtext runs, then our grand talk about human rights is just branding. “Save” is doing double duty here: rescue a people and rescue a belief.
As an actor rather than a diplomat, Gere leans on emotional clarity instead of procedural detail. That’s not a weakness; it’s the point. Celebrity advocacy trades expertise for amplification, translating remote suffering into an ethical storyline legible to Western audiences: protect the vulnerable, defend the sacred, keep faith in each other. The line also quietly recruits listeners: if “we” are siblings, neutrality becomes complicity. You don’t shrug at a sibling’s disappearance.
Context matters: Gere’s long association with Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, and decades of Chinese state pressure against pro-Tibet voices. The quote functions as both plea and provocation: caring about Tibet isn’t niche spirituality; it’s a referendum on whether empathy can outrun realpolitik.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Gere, Richard. (2026, January 15). In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-saving-tibet-you-save-the-possibility-that-we-147888/
Chicago Style
Gere, Richard. "In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-saving-tibet-you-save-the-possibility-that-we-147888/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-saving-tibet-you-save-the-possibility-that-we-147888/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.










