Paulo Freire Quotes

To feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the harborless without also trying to change the social order so that people can feed, clothe and shelter themselves is just to apply palliatives. It is to show a lack of faith in one’s fellows, their responsibilitie s as children of God, heirs of heaven.

The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes.

There is a kind of virtue that lies not in extraordinary actions, not in saving poor orphans from burning buildings, but in steadfastly working for a world where orphans are not poor and buildings comply with decent fire codes.

True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.

I believe in the power of media. I really do. It's my soapbox. And I do have an agenda, because I'm enraged by the limitations forced on people - by poverty, oppression, hatred, fear - and I'm saddened by the kind of loss we all experienced due to the contributions that people cannot make because of their circumstances.

A ghetto can be improved in only one way; out of existence.

For Haitians to vote means more than in Western countries. It is the way for the millions, who live in dirt and poverty, to prove to themselves that they are human. It is the difference between eternal darkness and light.

I come from a poor family, I have seen poverty. The poor need respect, and it begins with cleanliness.

It doesn't matter what color you are. Poverty is poverty. Inmates come from all walks of life. We have to make sure we look out for these people and give them a chance.

It may not necessarily be the way I would like to see it happen, but the reality is we could still bring millions of people out of the darkness into the light.

Those who minister to poverty and disease are accomplices in the two worst of all the crimes.

People don't need to become more aware of poverty - they need to know how to end it.

Subjection of any kind and in any place is beneath the dignity of man ... the highest joy is to fight by the side of those who for any reason of their own making or ours, are unable to develop to full human stature.

A Christianity which will not help those who are struggling from the bottom to the top of society, needs another Christ to die for it.

Charity is only a waystation on the road to justice.

Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody poor. Mercy no more could be, If all were happy as we.

Poverty without a people's government looks like hopelessness, but to see poverty in organized communities is to see relief-in-progress.

I want to work for the poor in my country.

Peace is no mere matter of men fighting or not fighting. Peace, to have meaning for many who have known only suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health, and education, as well as freedom and human dignity - a steadily better life. If peace is to be secure, long-suffering and long-starved, forgotten peoples of the world, the underprivileged and the undernourished, must begin to realize without delay the promise of a new day and a new life.

On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. "A Time to Break Silence," at Riverside Church

But we have created a society that does not allow opportunities for those people to take care of themselves because we have denied them those opportunities.

I am very much afraid that to the fiction writer the fact that we shall always have the poor with us is a source of satisfaction,for it means, essentially, that he will always be able to find someone like himself.

I want to build a bridge to the 21st century that ends the permanent underclass, that lifts up the poor and ends their isolation, their exile, and they are not forgotten anymore.

We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished.

I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the masses satisfied to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance. I want nothing to do with any order, religious or otherwise, which does not teach people that they are capable of becoming happier and more civilized on this earth, capable of becoming master of his fate and captain of his soul.