Paulo Freire Quotes - Page 3

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Without a minimum of hope, we cannot so much as start the struggle.

Paulo Freire

Struggle, Minimum

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, p.3, A&C Black

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The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot see that, in the egoistic pursuit of having as a possessing class, they suffocate in their own possessions and no longer are; they merely have.

Paulo Freire

Class, Privilege, Monopoly

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.42, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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The earliest language was body language and, since this language is the language of questions, if we limit the questions, and if we only pay attention to or place values on spoken or written language, then we are ruling out a large area of human language.

Paulo Freire

Attention, Body, Pay

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Every relationship of domination, of exploitation, of oppression is by definition violent, whether or not the violence is expressed by drastic means. In such a relationship, dominator and dominated alike are reduced to things- the former dehumanized by an excess of power, the latter by a lack of it. And things cannot love.

Paulo Freire

Mean, Violence, Excess

Paulo Freire (2013). “Education for Critical Consciousness”, p.17, Bloomsbury Publishing

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Reading is not walking on the words; it's grasping the soul of them.

Paulo Freire

Reading, Soul, Grasping

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

Paulo Freire

People, Profound, World

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.64, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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The unfinished character of human beings and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity.

Paulo Freire

Character, Reality, Ongoing

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.60, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence;… to alienate humans from their own decision making is to change them into objects.

Paulo Freire

Men, Decision, Inquiry

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The more we become able to become a child again, to keep ourselves childlike, the more we can understand that because we love the world and we are open to understanding, to comprehension, that when we kill the child in us, we are no longer.

Paulo Freire

Children, Understanding, World

Myles Horton, Paulo Freire, Brenda Bell, John Gaventa (1990). “We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change”, p.64, Temple University Press

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As one might expect, authoritarianism will at times cause children and students to adopt rebellious positions, defiant of any limit, discipline, or authority. But it will also lead to apathy, excessive obedience, uncritical conformity, lack of resistance against authoritarian discourse, self-abnegation, and fear of freedom.

Paulo Freire

Children, Self, Discipline

Paulo Freire (2005). “Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those who Dare Teach”

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In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation.

Paulo Freire

Reality, People, World

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.83, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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To glorify democracy and to silence the people is a farce; to discourse on humanism and to negate people is a lie.

Paulo Freire

Lying, People, Silence

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.91, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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To teach is part of the very fabric of learning.

Paulo Freire

Teacher, Fabric, Torture

Paulo Freire (2000). “Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage”, p.31, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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In order to have the continued opportunity to express their "generosity" the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well.

Paulo Freire

Opportunity, Order, Generosity

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.44, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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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.

Paulo Freire

Struggle, Reality, Order

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.35, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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Teacher preparation should go beyond the technical preparation of teachers and be rooted in the ethical formation both of selves and of history.

Paulo Freire

Teacher, Self, Preparation

Paulo Freire (2000). “Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage”, p.23, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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Reading the word and learning how to write the word so one can later read it are preceded by learning how to write the world, that is having the experience of changing the world and touching the world.

Paulo Freire

Reading, Writing, Touching

Paulo Freire, Donaldo Macedo (2005). “Literacy: Reading the Word and the World”, p.12, Routledge

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It is not systematic education which somehow molds society, but, on the contrary, society which, according to its particular structure, shapes education in relation to the ends and interests of those who control the power in that society.

Paulo Freire

Mold, Shapes, Systematic

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Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future.

Paulo Freire

Mean, Past, Understanding

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.60, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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If I am a pure product of genetic, cultural, or class determination, I have no responsibility for my action in the world and, therefore, it is not possible for me to speak of ethics. Of course, this assumption of responsibility does not mean that we are not conditioned genetically, culturally, and socially. It means that we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined.

Paulo Freire

Determination, Mean, Responsibility

Paulo Freire (2000). “Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage”, p.26, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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Being tolerant does not mean acquiescing to the intolerable; it does not mean covering up disrespect; it does not mean coddling the aggressor or disguising aggression. Tolerance is the virtue that teaches us to live with the different. It teaches us to learn from and respect the different.

Paulo Freire

Mean, Tolerance, Disrespect

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Whereas banking education anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality. The former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality.

Paulo Freire

Reality, Creative, Unveiling

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.58, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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The oppressors develop a series of methods precluding any presentation of the world as a problem and showing it rather as a fixed entity, as something given--something to which people, as mere spectators, must adapt.

Paulo Freire

People, World, Problem

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.139, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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In order for the oppressed to unite they must first cut the umbilical cord of magic and myth which binds them to the world of oppression; the unity which links them to each other must be of a different nature.

Paulo Freire

Cutting, Order, Magic

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.124, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings in the process of becoming.

Paulo Freire

Men, Becoming, Problem

Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.60, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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Born: September 19, 1921
Died: May 2, 1997
Occupation: Educator
Cite this Page: Citation

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