Paulo Freire

"How can the oppressed, as divided unauthentic beings, participate in the pedagogy of their liberation?"

"As long as they live in the duality in which to be is to to be like, and to be like is to be like the oppressor, this contribution is impossible."

"Liberation is thus a childbirth, and a painful one."

"Discovering himself to be an oppressor may cause considerable anguish, but it does not necessarily lead to solidarity with the oppressed."

"True solidarity is found only in the plenitude of this act of love, and in its existentiality, in its praxis."

"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."