Paulo Freire Quotes

It is dangerous to take human freedom for granted, to regard it as a prerogative rather than as an obligation, as an ultimate fact rather than as an ultimate goal. It is the beginning of wisdom to be amazed at the fact of our being free.

The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us.

To turn away from the great questions and dilemmas of life is a tragedy, for the quest for meaning and truth makes life worth living.

L'homme est condamne a' e" tre libre. Man is condemned to be free.

Through my newspaper comic strip, public speaking, and filmmaking, I try to tell as many people as possible, of all ages and from all walks of life, that we are destroying the ocean at such an alarming rate that we can't wait for a systematic solution. We can't wait for our political leadership to warm up to the idea, and we can't wait for the free market to find alternatives. We must act as individuals, now.

I'm not denying I've espoused and promoted conservatism, because conservatism's the alternative. And conservatism works every time it's tried. That's the problem. It really hasn't been tried. Even people claiming to be conservative, when it comes time to actually do it, chicken out.

To let the child do as he likes when he has not yet developed any powers of control is to betray the idea of freedom.

So long as men and women are free, no one is safe. People will be in danger because others can't operate vehicles responsibly or shoot straight. Because physicians are sometimes incompetent and lawyers dishonest. But most of all they will be in danger from ideas. It is the price we willingly pay to be free. Nor would we have it any other way.

Those who have ever valued liberty for its own sake believed that to be free to choose, and not to be chosen for, is an inalienable ingredient in what makes human beings human.

The quest for truth must be carried out by each person individually. It is like breathing, something which no one else can do for us.

You were born free by accident. You live free by choice. To die free is your responsibility.

Humans cannot find freedom until they let go of old obsolete ideas.

In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.

How did mankind ever come by the idea of liberty? What a grand thought it was!

I have served one idea, marched under one banner - war against all imposed authority - against every kind of deprivation of freedom, in the name of the absolute independence of the individual.

If our language is watered down, then mankind becomes less human, and less free.

Conservatism is less a set of ideas than it is a pathological distemper, a militant anger over the fact that the universe is not closed and life is not static.

As for me, my literary theory, like my politics, is based chiefly upon one main idea, to wit, the idea of freedom. I am, in brief, a libertarian of the most extreme variety, and know of no human right that is one-tenth as valuable as the simple right to utter what seems (at the moment) to be the truth

The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the State. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action.

Those men and women are fortunate who are born at a time when a great struggle for human freedom is in progress.

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.

Destiny is not preordained. Destiny is ordained totally by you. Every single moment of your NOW existence is the result of your previous thought. The idea that everything is already laid out for you in advance is a hallucination. You can and do manifest your own destiny.

The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue. . . . There is a perpetual interference with personal liberty over there that would not be tolerated in England for a week.

Humankind struggles with collective powers for its freedom, the individual struggles with dehumanization for the possession of his soul.

Freedom does not come automatically; it is achieved. And it is not gained in a single bound; it must be achieved each day.