Paulo Freire

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom...”

“The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.”

“To surmount the situation of oppression, people must first critically recognize its causes, so that through transforming action they can create a new situation, one which makes possible the pursuit of a fuller humanity.”

“Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world.”

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

“No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so.”

“The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.”

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.”

“Dialogue cannot exist, however, in the absence of a profound love for the world and for people.”

“The educator has the duty of not being neutral.”

“Without a vision for tomorrow, hope is impossible.”

“It is a farce to affirm that men are people and thus should be free, yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality.”

“Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people–they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.”

“For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human.”