Paulo Freire: Trending quotes (page 2)

“It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen, a total denouncement of fatalism is necessary. We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Justice

“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”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 1

“The multitude is always in the wrong.”

Paulo Freire

“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.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

People , Way , Thinking

“Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information.”

Paulo Freire

Education

“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.”

Paulo Freire

Women , Men , Reality , Personality

“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.”

Paulo Freire

Love , Fear , Courage

“The former oppressors do not feel liberated. On the contrary, they genuinely consider themselves to be oppressed.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

Feeling

“Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning.”

Paulo Freire

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 2

Life , Communication

“This work deals with a very obvious truth: just as the oppressor, in order to oppress, needs a theory of oppressive action, so the oppressed, in order to become free, also need a theory of action.”

Paulo Freire

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

Truth

“In sum: banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and women as historical beings; problem-posing theory and practice take the people's historicity as their starting point.”

Paulo Freire

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 2

Women , Men , People , Problem

“While no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others.”

Paulo Freire

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

Effort

“Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation.”

Paulo Freire

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

“Only in the encounter of the people with the revolutionary leaders--in their communion, in their praxis--can this theory be built.”

Paulo Freire

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 4, Cultural Synthesis

People

“The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves.”

Paulo Freire

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 1, on the oppressors

“Trust is established by dialogue.”

Paulo Freire

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

“The unfinished character of human beings and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity.”

Paulo Freire

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 3, on dialogue.

Education , Reality

“For if the people join to their presence in the historical process critical thinking about that process, the threat of their emergence materializes in a revolution. Whether one calls this correct thinking 'revolutionary consciousness' or 'class consciousness,' it is an indispensable precondition of revolution. The dominant elites are so well aware of this fact that they instinctively use all means, including physical violence, to keep people from thinking.”

Paulo Freire

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

People , Thinking

“Money is the measure of all things, and profit the primary goal. For the oppressors, what is worthwhile is to have more--always more--even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them, to be is to have.”

Paulo Freire

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

Money

“Those who are served by the present limit-situation regard the untested feasibility as a threatening limit-situation which must not be allowed to materialize, and act to maintain the status quo.”

Paulo Freire

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 3, on the oppressive status quo