Paulo Freire Quotes

Charity and philanthropy are not justice.

True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the "rejects of life," to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands--whether of individuals or entire peoples--need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.

For those who are not hungry, it is easy to palaver about the degradation of charity.

It's really important to be attentive to the people who have less - who are less fortunate than you are.

The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge of and belief in love.

Those who have much are often greedy. Those who have little always share.

Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just.

Give a beggar a dime and he'll bless you. Give him a dollar and he'll curse you for withholding the rest of your fortune. Poverty is a bag with a hole at the bottom.

The world does not have time to be with the poor, to learn with the poor, to listen to the poor. To listen to the poor is an exercise of great discipline, but such listening surely is what is required if charity is not to become a hatred of the poor for being poor.

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

Funny thing is that the poorer people are, the more generous they seem to be.

The poor are the only consistent altruists; they sell all they have and give it to the rich.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

Having leveled my palace, don't erect a hovel and complacently admire your own charity in giving me that for a home.

If I had the power I would steal all your royal wealth and give it to Christ’s brothers and sisters.

When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.

It is nothing less than a shocking indictment on western society that we spend so much on ourselves and so little on those on have nothing.

While Pop lived his life in comfort, he was always generous to the less fortunate.

It's not in the heart of America to see others go hungry.

There are very few who have the privileges I have, and, therefore, it is essential that we give back to society.

I hate the idea of people nicking my stuff, but in all honesty, I'm pretty well off. If a genuinely desperate man on his last gasp nicks my coat from the pub on a freezing night, well, he's welcome to it. It'll change his life. Mine's only inconvenienced by having to buy another one.

As we come to know the seriousness of the situation, the war, the racism, the poverty in our world, we come to realize that things will not be changed simply by words or demonstrations. Rather, it's a question of living one's life in a drastically different way.

Anyone who has two shirts when someone has none is not a christian.

They are Man's and they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance and this girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

This is to assuage our conscience, darling" she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need chartiy; they need justice.