Paulo Freire

The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves...

— Paulo Freire

Education is freedom. Education will teach you how to do it yourself as opposed to asking someone else to do it for…

— Paulo Freire

The world is split between those who do not sleep because they are hungry and those who do not sleep because they…

— Paulo Freire

It's no sin to make a critical study of Brazil's reality. A small percentage own land. Most people don't.

— Paulo Freire

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

— Paulo Freire

The trust of the people in the leaders reflects the confidence of the leaders in the people.

— Paulo Freire

“The oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well people fit the world the oppressors have created, and how little they question it.”

— Paulo Freire

It would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors not only defended but actually implemented a liberating education.

— Paulo Freire

Indeed, some "revolutionaries" brand as "innocents," "dreamers," or even "reactionaries"; those who would challenge this educational practice. But one does not liberate…

— Paulo Freire

The atmosphere of the home is prolonged in the school, where the students soon discover thatin order to achieve some satisfaction they…

— Paulo Freire

It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen,…

— Paulo Freire

Coherently democratic authority carries the conviction that true discipline does not exist in the muteness of those who have been silenced but…

— Paulo Freire

Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for…

— Paulo Freire

“With the insight that genuine literacy involves “reading the word and the world,” renowned educator Paulo Freire helped open the door to…

— Paulo Freire

Just as it is important in Latin America to discuss ideas that come from North America, I think it is interesting for…

— Paulo Freire

In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which…

— Paulo Freire

“No one leaves his or her world without being transfixed by its roots, or with a vacuum for a soul. We carry…

— Paulo Freire

“If anyone, on the other hand, assuming a democratic, progressive position, therefore argues for the democratization of the programmatic organization of content,…

— Paulo Freire

We must be forewarned that only rarely does a text easily lend itself to the reader's curiosity... the reading of a text…

— Paulo Freire

Organization is not only directly linked to unity, but a natural development of that unity. Accordingly, the leaders' pursuit of that unity…

— Paulo Freire

Even revolution, which transforms a concrete situation of oppression by establishing the process of liberation, must confront this phenomenon. Many of the…

— Paulo Freire

True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the…

— Paulo Freire

“But one does not liberate someone by alienating them. Authentic liberation--the process of humanization--is not another deposit to be made in a…

— Paulo Freire

An unauthentic word, one which is unable to transform reality, results when dichotomy is imposed upon its constitutive elements. When a word…

— Paulo Freire

“One of the gravest obstacles to the achievement of liberation is that oppressive reality absorbs those within it and thereby acts to…

— Paulo Freire

This capacity to go beyond the factors of conditioning is one of the obvious advantages of the human person.

— Paulo Freire

If it is in speaking their word that people, by naming the world, transform it, dialogue imposes itself as the way by…

— Paulo Freire

“Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both.”

— Paulo Freire

The revolutionary's role is to liberate, and to be liberated, with the people--not to win them over.

— Paulo Freire

To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make…

— Paulo Freire

“This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well.”

— Paulo Freire

“If I do not love the world, if I do not love life, if I do not love people, I cannot enter…

— Paulo Freire

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

— Paulo Freire

It doesnt hurt to repeat here the statement, still rejected by many people in spite of its obviousness, that education is a…

— Paulo Freire

What if we discover that our present way of life is irreconcilable with our vocation to become fully human?

— Paulo Freire

“A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in the people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a…

— Paulo Freire

It is not suprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings.

— Paulo Freire

“One must seek to live with others in solidarity..only through communication can human life hold meaning.”

— Paulo Freire

“As long as the oppressed remain unaware of the causes of their condition, they fatalistically "accept" their exploitation.”

— Paulo Freire

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

— Paulo Freire