Only in the encounter of the people with the revolutionary leaders—in their communion, in their praxis—can this theory be built. - Paulo Freire

The excess of power which has characterized our culture from the start created on the one hand an almost masochistic desire to submit to that power and on the other a desire to be all-powerful. This habit of submission led men to adapt and adjust to their circumstances, instead of seeking to integrate themselves with reality. Integration, the behavior characteristic of flexibly democratic regimes, requires a maximum capacity for critical thought. In contrast, the adapted man, neither dialoguing nor participating, accommodates to conditions imposed upon him and thereby acquires an authoritarian and acritical frame of mind.

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

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