Paulo Freire Quotes

People are fulfilled only to the extent that they create their world (which is a human world), and create it with their transforming labor. The fulfillment of humankind as human beings lies, then, in the fulfillment of the world. If for a person to be in the world of work is to be totally dependent, insecure, and permanently threatened—if their work does not belong to them—the person cannot be fulfilled. Work that is not free ceases to be a fulfilling pursuit and becomes an effective means of dehumanization.

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. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world.

In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they existin the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation.

The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.

The behavior of the oppressed is a prescribed behavior, following as it does the guidelines of the oppressor.

For people, 'here' signifies not merely a physical space, but also an historical space.

A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in the people, which engages him in their struggle.

The more educators and the people investigate the people's thinking, and are thus jointly educated, the more they continue to investigate.

While no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others.

How can the oppressed, as divided unauthentic beings, participate in the pedagogy of their liberation?

In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing.

Our converts, on the other hand, truly desire to transform the unjust order; but because of their background they believe that they must be the executors of the transformation.

Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of the students.

Knowing, whatever its level, is not the act by which a subject transformed into an object docilely and passively accepts the contents others give or impose on him or her. Knowledge, on the contrary, necessitates the curious presence of subjects confronted with the world. It requires their transforming action on reality. It demands a constant searching. It implies invention and reinvention. It claims from each person a reflection on the very act of knowing.

Finally, cultural revolution develops the practice of permanent dialogue between leaders and people and consolidates the participation of the people in power.