Quotes from Cesar Chavez

Look at the John Birch Society. Look at Hitler. The reactionaries are always better organizers.

Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.

You are never strong enough that you don't need help.

However important the struggle is and however much misery and poverty and degradation exist, we know that it cannot be more important than one human life.

Who gets the risks? The risks are given to the consumer, the unsuspecting consumer and the poor work force. And who gets the benefits? The benefits are only for the corporations, for the money makers.

As long as we have a poor country bordering California, it's going to be very difficult to win strikes.

Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about life.

Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves - and be free.

There are vivid memories from my childhood - what we had to go through because of low wages and the conditions, basically because there was no union. I suppose, if I wanted to be fair, I could say that I'm trying to settle a personal score. I could dramatize it by saying that I want to bring social justice to farm workers.

When poor people get involved in a long conflict, such as a strike or a civil rights drive, and the pressure increases each day, there is a deep need for spiritual advice. Without it, we see families crumble, leadership weaken, and hard workers grow tired.

Farm workers are society's canaries. Farm workers - and their children - demonstrate the effects of pesticide poisoning before anyone else.

In giving of yourself, you will discover a whole new life full of meaning and love.

There is enough love and good will in our movement to give energy to our struggle and still have plenty left over to break down and change the climate of hate and fear around us.

Never, never is it possible to reach someone if you become angry or bitter only love and gentleness can do it. Maybe not this time but maybe the next or the hundredth time.

We learned many years ago that the rich may have money, but the poor have time.

From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.

Together, all things are possible

When you have people together who believe in something very strongly - whether it's religion or politics or unions - things happen.

If you want to remember me, organize!

It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we will use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity.

Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.

I'm not going to ask for anything unless the workers want it. If they want it, they'll ask for it.

It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice.

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.