“The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.”
“The trust of the people in the leaders reflects the confidence of the leaders in the people.”
“Revolution is born as a social entity within the oppressor society.”
“Education must begin with the solution of the student-teacher contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.”
“At a certain point in their existential experience, the oppressed feel an irresistible attraction toward the oppressor and his way of life. Sharing this way of life becomes an overpowering aspiration.”
“Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information.”
“Education is freedom.”
“It’s no sin to make a critical study of Brazil’s reality. A small percentage own land. Most people don’t.”
“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.”
“Manipulation, sloganizing, depositing, regimentation, and prescription cannot be components of revolutionary praxis, precisely because they are the components of the praxis of domination.”
“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
“Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation. The content of that dialogue can and should vary in accordance with historical conditions and the level at which the oppressed perceive reality.”
“At times, I have been criticized by some philosophers of education, who place me in postures that they classify pejoratively as ‘revolutionary.’ But I have had the satisfaction of being invited to work in societies making progressive efforts without wavering. They were changing, and so they called on me.”
“I am an educator who thinks globally.”
“Every society needs to examine itself in relation to other societies.”
“It is absolutely essential that the oppressed participate in the revolutionary process with an increasingly critical awareness of their role as subjects of the transformation.”
“How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation?”
“Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world.”
“Just as it is important in Latin America to discuss ideas that come from North America, I think it is interesting for North Americans to discuss ideas that come from Latin America or Africa and do not insert themselves into capitalist interests.”
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