Paulo Freire Quotes

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

Reflection upon situationality is reflection about the very condition of existence: critical thinking by means which people discover each other to be 'in a situation.'

Thematic investigation thus becomes a common striving towards awareness of reality and towards self-awareness, which makes this investigation a starting point for the educational process or for cultural action of a liberating character.

Those who are served by the present limit-situation regard the untested feasibility as a threatening limit-situation which must not be allowed to materialize, and act to maintain the status quo.

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

The revolutionary's role is to liberate, and to be liberated, with the people—not to win them over.

The unfinished character of human beings and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity.

The dialogical character of education as the practice of freedom does not begin when the teacher-student meets with the students-teachers in pedagogical situation, but rather when the former first asks herself or himself what she or he will dialogue with the latter about.

Trust is established by dialogue.

Founding itself upon love, humility, and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of which mutual trust between the dialoguers is a logical consequence.

Faith in people is an a priori requirement for dialogue.

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."

Dialogue cannot exist without humility.

Dialogue cannot exist, however, in the absence of a profound love for the world and its people.

Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression.