Paulo Freire

"Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students."

"Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it."

"In sum: banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and women as historical beings; problem-posing theory and practice take the peoples historicity as their starting point."

"The correct method lies in dialogue. The conviction of the oppressed that they must fight in their liberation is not a gift bestowed by the revolutionary leadership, but the result of their own conscientização."

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

"Some may think that to affirm dialogue—the encounter of women and men in the world in order to transform the world—is naively and subjectively idealistic. There is nothing, however, more real or concrete than people in the world and with the world, than humans with other humans."

"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."

"In a dynamic, rather than static, view of revolution, there is no absolute before or after, with the taking of power as the dividing line."

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

"Organization is not only directly linked to unity, but a natural development of that unity. Accordingly, the leaders pursuit of that unity is also an attempt to organize the people, requiring witness to the fact that the struggle for liberation is a common task."

"The participants begin to realize that if their analysis of the situation goes any deeper they will either have to divest themselves of their myths, or reaffirm them. Divesting themselves of and renouncing their myths represents, at that moment, an act of self-violence. On the other hand, to reaffirm those myths is to reveal themselves."

"The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors"