Paulo Freire Quotes

In raising a people from slavery to freedom, you have called them to act on a new theatre; and it is a necessary part of your business, to teach them how to perform their parts.

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

The work does not end with the abolition of slavery but only begins.

… true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts. It begins in woman's soul. History tells us that every oppressed class gained true liberation from its masters through its own efforts.

It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors.

It was imperative to make common cause with the oppressed in order to secure a new system opposed to the ambitions and governing habits of the oppressors.

It is so sad that it takes so long for people to understand what needs to happen in order to be free.

... within every form of oppression lies the seeds of liberation.

In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit , but as a limiting situation which they can transform.

The hope of remaking the world is indispensable in the struggle of oppressed men and women.

I get out, I get out of all your boxes. I get out, you can't hold me in these chains. I'll get out. Father free me from this bondage. Knowin' my condition is the reason I must change

Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right.

Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.

The people have now come to realize that the only way to deal with the oppressor is to deal on our own terms and this was done.

We're not trying to take power away or rule anybody - we're just trying to get up from under the rulers.

I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed.

I am the dream and the hope of the slave

Women get more unhappy the more they try to liberate themselves.

To this wonderful page in our country's history another more glorious still will be added, and the slave shall show at last to his free brothers a sharpened sword forged from the links of his fetters.

When you're talking about an authority figure oppressing against people, it's the people that hold that authority figure up. If you want to get free of this bondage, then we need to think about ways to free ourselves rather than looking to the oppressors to free us.

No one, and no mind, was ever emancipated by merely being left alone.

The glorious spectacle of eighteen millions of people, struggling to burst their chains and be free.

No people will be truly free until all are free.

The hour of emancipation is advancing in the march of time. It will come, and whether brought on by generous energy of our own minds or by the bloody process of St. Domingo... is a leaf of our history not yet turned over.

Fellow Peasants: No hand will after this day be above your hand… You are the producers. Yours is the power.