Cesar Chavez Quotes About Struggle

Quotes about: Struggle

• The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.

  Cesar Chavez

  Peace, Struggle, Fighting

• Our struggle is not easy. Those who oppose our cause are rich and powerful and they have many allies in high places. We are poor. Our allies are few. But we have something the rich do not own. We have our bodies and spirits and the justice of our cause as our weapons.

  Cesar Chavez

  Powerful, Struggle, Justice

  Cesar Chavez (2008). “An Organizer's Tale: Speeches”, p.207, Penguin

• I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!

  Cesar Chavez

  Struggle, Sacrifice, Men

  Cesar Chavez, Richard Jay Jensen, John C. Hammerback (2002). “The Words of César Chávez”, p.167, Texas A&M University Press

• It is not good enough to know why we are oppressed and by whom. We must join the struggle for what is right and just. Jesus does not promise that it will be an easy way to live life and His own life certainly points in a hard direction; but it does promise that we will be "satisfied" (not stuffed; but satisfied). He promises that by giving life we will find life - full, meaningful life as God meant it.

  Cesar Chavez

  Meaningful, Jesus, Struggle

  Cesar Chavez (2008). “An Organizer's Tale: Speeches”, p.157, Penguin

• We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.

  Cesar Chavez

  Strength, Struggle, Commitment

  Cesar Chavez, Richard Jay Jensen, John C. Hammerback (2002). “The Words of César Chávez”, p.17, Texas A&M University Press

• We can choose to use our lives for others to bring about a better and more just world for our children. People who make that choice will know hardship and sacrifice. But if you give yourself totally to the non-violence struggle for peace and justice you also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never be alone. And in giving of yourself you will discover a whole new life full of meaning and love.

  Cesar Chavez

  Children, Struggle, Heart

• There is enough love and good will in our movement to give energy to our struggle and still have plenty left over to break down and change the climate of hate and fear around us.

  Cesar Chavez

  Hate, Struggle, Giving

  Cesar Chavez, Richard Jay Jensen, John C. Hammerback (2002). “The Words of César Chávez”, p.181, Texas A&M University Press

• When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again.

  Cesar Chavez

  Struggle, Men, Two

• What, then, is the effect of pesticides? Pesticides have created a legacy of pain, and misery, and death for farm workers and consumers alike. The crop which poses the greatest danger, and the focus of our struggle, is the table grape crop. These pesticides soak the fields. Drift with the wind, pollute the water, and are eaten by unwitting consumers. These poisons are designed to kill, and pose a very real threat to consumers and farm workers alike.

  Cesar Chavez

  Pain, Real, Struggle

  Cesar Chavez (2008). “An Organizer's Tale: Speeches”, p.264, Penguin

• If you give yourself totally to the nonviolence struggle for peace and justice you also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never be alone.

  Cesar Chavez

  Struggle, Heart, People

  Cesar Chavez, Richard Jay Jensen, John C. Hammerback (2002). “The Words of César Chávez”, p.167, Texas A&M University Press

• Because we have suffered, and we are not afraid to suffer in order to survive, we are ready to give up everything - even our lives - in our struggle for justice.

  Cesar Chavez

  Giving Up, Struggle, Order

  Cesar Chavez (2008). “An Organizer's Tale: Speeches”, p.64, Penguin

• However important the struggle is and however much misery and poverty and degradation exist, we know that it cannot be more important than one human life.

  Cesar Chavez

  Struggle, Important, Degradation

• We are convinced that non-violence is more powerful than violence. We are convinced that non-violence supports you if you have a just and moral cause...If you use violence, you have to sell part of yourself for that violence. Then you are no longer a master of your own struggle.

  Cesar Chavez

  Peace, Powerful, War

• Farm workers everywhere are angry and worried that we cannot win without violence. We have proved it before through persistence, hard work, faith and willingness to sacrifice. We can win and keep our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the spirit of all people if we do it through a re-dedication and re-commitment to the struggle for justice through non-violence.

  Cesar Chavez

  Struggle, Commitment, Hard Work

• Our union represents a breaking away...represents sharing a power, represent questioning, represents a new force...however long it takes, we are geared for a struggle.

  Cesar Chavez

  Struggle, Long, Breaking Away

• Non-violence is very weak in the theoretical sense; it cannot defend itself. But it is most powerful in the action situation where people are using non-violence because they want desperately to bring about some change. Non-violence in action is a very potent force and it can't be stopped. The people who are struggling have the complete say-so. No man-made law, no human ruler, no army can destroy this. There is no way it can be destroyed... And so, if we have the capacity to endure, if we have the patience, things will change.

  Cesar Chavez

  Powerful, Struggle, Army

• When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us, so it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving life do we find life, that the truest act courage, the strongest act of manliness is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others, God help us to be men.

  Cesar Chavez

  Struggle, Sacrifice, Men

  Cesar Chavez, Richard Jay Jensen, John C. Hammerback (2002). “The Words of César Chávez”, p.167, Texas A&M University Press

• ...the workers aren't going to stop struggling. They're going to struggle to have a union and they have the right to have it. The police repression and the grower indifference to the workers' demands for recognition cannot go unheard so we're going to keep on struggling until we get that recognition.

  Cesar Chavez

  Struggle, Police, Demand

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