Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence;… to alienate humans from their own decision making is to change them into objects.

Learning is a process where knowledge is presented to us, then shaped through understanding, discussion and reflection.

Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning.

No one is born fully-formed: it is through self-experience in the world that we become what we are.

Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is a commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause--the cause of liberation.

Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed

Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.

Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.

No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so.

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.

There is an end to everything even life.

If you're not willing to speak out for the rights of other people, then who do you expect to speak out for you when it's your turn?

It had never occurred to me before but everything in New York is built upon another thing, nothing is entirely by itself, each thing as strange as the last, and connected.

I feel sorry for the young people today. I think there's too much paparazzi and not enough protection.

Your version of the truth is all that matters.

Life does not consist mainly - or even largely - of facts and happenings.

Now you must practice to see something without allowing any thought to rise. Then you start sucking through your Spirit the beauty, the glory, the fragrance of a flower.

When it's over I just want to be able to look in the mirror and say, 'Well, you were a half-decent player.'

If any man thinks to swindle God, he is wrong.

Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.