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Famous Paulo Freire Quotes

“The fact that one person imagines a "well-behaved" present and the other a predetermined future does not mean that they therefore fold their arms and become spectators (the former expecting that the present will continue, the latter waiting for the already "known" future to come to pass). On the contrary, closing themselves into "circles of certainty" from which they cannot escape, these individuals "make" their own truth. It is not the truth of men and women who struggle to build the future, running the risks involved in this very construction. Nor is it the truth of men and women who fight side by side and learn together how to build this future—which is not something given to be received by people, but is rather something to be created by them. Both types of sectarian, treating history in an equally proprietary fashion, end up without the people—which is another way of being against them.”

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

MeanCharacterHandsPoliticalValuesPeaceSidesCommunityFreedomPowerfulMoralPowerVirtueDemocracyHonestyIntegrityConflictEthicsInequalityPowerlessWashingPowerlessnessNeutralityPedagogyPedagogy Of The OppressedPraxisCommunity Action
Book:The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation
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“Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human beings and the world: a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; the individual is spectator, not re-creator.”

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Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“But almost always, during the initial stage of the struggle, the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors, or sub oppressors. The very structure of their thought has been conditioned by the contradiction of the concrete, existential situation by which they were shaped. Their ideal is to be men; but for them to be men is to be oppressors”

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Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“[T]he more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them. This person does not consider himself or herself the proprietor of history or of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but he or she does commit himself or herself, within history, to fight at their side.”

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Author:Paulo Freire
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“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 means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”

MenWorldMeanRealityUsedDealsCreativityPracticeLearningDemocracyGenerationsMen And WomenCriticismLogicFunctionTransformationInstrumentsEducationalConformityIntegrationNonconformityFacilitateYounger GenerationPedagogyPedagogy Of The OppressedAdult EducationConformity And IndividualityEducation And FreedomAdult Learning
Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. Such a program constitutes cultural invasion, good intentions notwithstanding.”

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Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“An unauthentic word, one which is unable to transform reality, results when dichotomy is imposed upon its constitutive elements. When a word is deprived of its dimension of action, reflection automatically suffers as well; and the word is changed into idle chatter, into verbalism, into an alienated and alienating “blah.” It becomes an empty word, one which cannot denounce the world, for denunciation is impossible without a commitment to transform, and there is no transformation without action.”

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Author:Paulo Freire
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“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.”

WorldNeedsHumansHandsLyingFightingIndividualCausesCharityStriveGenerosityRejectsFearfulTremblingPedagogyConstrainSupplicationHuman HandsPedagogy Of The OppressedCharity And GenerosityTrue GenerosityTrembling Hands
Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed”

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Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation. And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade”

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Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.”

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Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation? Only as they discover themselves to be 'hosts' of the oppressor can they contribute to the midwifery of their liberating pedagogy. As long as they live in the duality in which to be is to be like and to be like is to be like the oppressor, this contribution is impossible. The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.”

LongImpossibleDiscoveryInstrumentsCriticalDevelopingLiberationManifestationContributionDividedHostOppressedLiberatingDualityOppressorsPedagogyDehumanizationPedagogy Of The OppressedMidwifery
Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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“The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role impressed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.”

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Author:Paulo Freire
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“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.”

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Book:Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
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