Top 15 César Chávez Quotes

I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry and unhappy like we do. I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings.

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

Cesar Chavez
Address to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Nov. 9, 1984

We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves.

We know we cannot be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them — exploiting animals in the name of science, exploiting animals in the name of sport, exploiting animals in the name of fashion, and yes, exploiting animals in the name of food.

Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people.

Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.

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

Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak... Non-violence is hard work.

The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.

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

If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart.

Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.

Our lives are all that really belong to us, so it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are

History will judge societies and governments — and their institutions — not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.

When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering, and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.