Paulo Freire Quotes
True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.
Teachers who do not take their own education seriously, who do not study, who make little effort to keep abreast of events have no moral authority to coordinate the activities of the classroom.
There is no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word is to transform the world.
The unfinished character of human beings and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity.
The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.
The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors.
To glorify democracy and to silence the people is a farce; to discourse on humanism and to negate people is a lie.
One of my major preoccupations is the approximation between what I say and what I do, between what I seem to be and what I am actually becoming.
The intellectual activity of those without power is always characterized as non-intellectual.
Certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation.
To simply think about the people, as the dominators do, without any self-giving in that thought, to fail to think with the people, is a sure way to cease being revolutionary leaders.
... there is no valid teaching from which there does not emerge something learned and through which the learner does not become capable of recreating and remaking what has been taught.
The revolutionary's role is to liberate, and to be liberated, with the people--not to win them over.
The road to revolution involves openness to the people, not imperviousness to them; it involves communion with the people, not mistrust.
This capacity to go beyond the factors of conditioning is one of the obvious advantages of the human person.
It is not suprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings.
For cultural invasion to succeed, it is essential that those invaded become convinced of their intrinsic inferiority.
The former oppressors do not feel liberated. On the contrary, they genuinely consider themselves to be oppressed.
To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce.
It is absolutely essential that the oppressed participate in the revolutionary process with an increasingly critical awareness of their role as subjects of the transformation.
The hope of remaking the world is indispensable in the struggle of oppressed men and women.
Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers.
It is essential for the oppressed to realize that when they accept the struggle for humanization they also accept, from that moment, their total responsibility for the struggle.
The future isn't something hidden in a corner.The future is something we build in the present.
Submission to suffering is a form of annihilation, but transformation of suffering rekindles a faith that gives life.
Education is freedom. Education will teach you how to do it yourself as opposed to asking someone else to do it for you. And around it our own town... Freemanville!
The world is split between those who do not sleep because they are hungry and those who do not sleep because they are afraid of those who are hungry.
Teacher preparation should go beyond the technical preparation of teachers and be rooted in the ethical formation both of selves and of history.
It's no sin to make a critical study of Brazil's reality. A small percentage own land. Most people don't.
The role of the educator is one of tranquil possession of certitude in regard to the teaching of not only contents but also of 'correct thinking.'
It would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors not only defended but actually implemented a liberating education.
Individuals who were submerged in reality, merely feeling their needs, emerge from reality and perceive the causes of their needs.
A fact which is not denied but whose truths are rationalized loses its objective base. It ceases to be concrete and becomes a myth created in defense of the class of the perceiver.
The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves...
P60- one does not liberate people by alienating them. P62- consciousness is the constant unveiling of reality.