Paulo Freire

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

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.

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.

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.

Revolution is born as a social entity within the oppressor society.

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

Education is freedom.

Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information.

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.

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.

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.