"A fact which is not denied but whose truths are rationalized loses its objective base. It ceases to be concrete and becomes a myth created in defense of the class of the perceiver."

"It would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors not only defended but actually implemented a liberating education."

"The former oppressors do not feel liberated. On the contrary, they genuinely consider themselves to be oppressed."

"Money is the measure of all things, and profit the primary goal. For the oppressors, what is worthwhile is to have more—always more—even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them, to be is to have."

"For them, having more is an inalienable right."

"Certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation."

"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."

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

"The oppressed want at any cost to resemble the oppressors."

"They call themselves ignorant and say the 'professor' is the one who has knowledge and to whom they should listen."

"Almost never do they realize that they, too, 'know things' they have learned in their relations with the world."

"Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for 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."

"Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects that must be saved from a burning building."

"It is necessary to trust in the oppressed and in their ability to reason."

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

"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."

"It is essential for the oppressed to realize that when they accept the struggle for humanization they also accept, from that moment, their total responsibility for the struggle."

"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."

"Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human beings and the world: a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; the individual is spectator, not re-creator."