Paulo Freire

Functionally, oppression is domesticating. To no longer be prey to its force, one must emerge from it and turn upon it. This can be done only by means of the praxis: reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.

Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both.

This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well.

Who are better prepared than the oppressed to understand the terrible significance of an oppressive society? Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of liberation?

This lesson and this apprenticeship must come, however, from the oppressed themselves and from those who are truly solidary with them.

Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift.

It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.

When they discover within themselves the yearning to be free, they perceive that this yearning can be transformed into reality only when the same yearning is aroused in their comrades

They prefer gregariousness to authentic comradeship; they prefer the security of conformity with their state of unfreedom

to the creative communion produced by freedom and even the very pursuit of freedom.