Quotes from Paulo Freire

On the other hand, you know that it's possible to do more. You cannot accept being immobilized because you think that you've finished. You experience the very nature of being a human being-that is, unfinished, constantly in search.

Aos esfarrapados do mundo e aos que neles se descobrem e, assim descobrindo-se, com eles sofrem, mas, sobretudo, com eles lutam.

eu gosto de ser humano, porque, inacabado, eu sei que sou um estafador, mas, ciente do incompleto, eu sei que posso ir mais longe.

Personne n'éduque autrui, personne ne s'éduque seul, les hommes s'éduquent ensemble par l'intermédiaire du monde.

To this end, the invaders are making increasing use of the social sciences and technology, and to some extent the physical sciences as well, to improve and refine their action. It is indispensable for the invaders to know the past and present of those invaded in order to discern the alternatives of the latter's future and thereby attempt to guide the evolution of that future along lines that will favor their own interests.

Ler, não é caminhar sobre as letras, mas interpretar o mundo e poder lançar sua palavra sobre ele, interferir no mundo pela ação.

The theory without the practice becomes 'verbosity', as well as the practice without theory, turns activism. However, when it joins the practice with the theory has been the praxis, the creative and modifier action of reality.

the epitome of negation in the context of education is the stifling or inhibition of curiosity in the learner

In cultural invasion, both the spectators and the reality to be preserved are objects of the actors' action. In cultural synthesis, there are no spectators; the object of the actors' action is the reality to be transformed for the liberation of men.

No que diz respeito às relações autoridade-liberdade, [...], corremos também o risco de, negando à liberdade o direito de afirmar-se, exacerbar a autoridade ou, atrofiando esta, hipertrofiar aquela. Em outras palavras, corremos o risco de cair seduzidos ou pela tirania da liberdade ou pela tirania da autoridade, trabalhando, em qualquer das hipóteses, contra a nossa incipiente democracia.

Mais do que ser educando por causa de uma razão qualquer, o educando precisa tornar-se educando assumindo-se como sujeito cognoscente e não como incidência do discurso do educador. Nisto é que reside, em última análise, a grande importância política do ato de ensinar.

A coerência não é, porém, imobilizante. Posso, no processo de agir-pensar, falar, escrever, mudar de posição. Minha coerência assim, tão necessária quanto antes, se faz com novos parâmetros. O impossível para mim é a falta de coerência, mesmo reconhecendo a impossibilidade de uma coerência absoluta.

Men and women rarely admit their fear of freedom openly, however, tending rather to camouflage it—sometimes unconsciously—by presenting themselves as defenders of freedom.

Não nego a competência, por outro lado, de certos arrogantes, mas lamento neles a ausência de simplicidade que, não diminuindo em nada seu saber, os faria gente melhor. Gente mais gente.

To speak a true word is to transform the world.

In the process of transition of revolution, is to create an education that enlarges and amplifies the horizon of critical understanding of the people, to cre­ate an education devoted to freedom.

The radical is never a subjectivist. For this individual the subjective aspect exists only in relation to the objective aspect (the concrete reality, which is the object of analysis). Subjectivity and objectivity thus join in a dialectical unity producing knowledge in solidarity with action, and vice versa.

Se nada ficar destas páginas, algo, pelo menos, esperamos que permaneça: nossa confiança no povo. Nossa fé nos homens e na criação de um mundo em que seja menos difícil amar

in order to function, authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it.

To begin always anew, to make, to reconstruct, and to not spoil, to refuse to bureaucratize the mind, to understand and to live life as a process—live to become

A salvação dos homens e das mulheres não passa por sua libertação permanente e esta pela re-invenção do mundo.

The revolution is made neither by the leaders for the people, nor by the people for the leaders, but by both acting together in unshakable solidarity.

To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming,. Human beings are not built in silence,3 but in word, in work, in action-reflection.

Self-sufficiency is incompatible with dialogue. Men and women who lack humility (or have lost it) cannot come to the people, cannot be their partners in naming the world. Someone who cannot acknowledge himself to be as mortal as everyone else still has a long way to go before he can reach the point of encounter. At the point of encounter there are neither utter ignoramuses nor perfect sages; there are only people who are attempting, together, to learn more than they now know.