The behavior of the oppressed is a prescribed behavior, following as it does the guidelines of the oppressor.
Paulo FreireRead
Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Liberation involves both action and reflection to bring about change in the world.
This quote by Paulo Freire emphasizes that liberation is not merely a theoretical concept but an active process that combines both reflective thought and practical action. It suggests that true transformation of one's environment requires individuals to thoughtfully engage with and act upon their circumstances, thereby actively participating in the creation of a more just and equitable world.
Themes
LiberationReflectionActionTransformationChange
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social justice, one might say, 'As Paulo Freire reminds us, liberation is a praxis, urging us to act and reflect to transform our society.'
More from Paulo Freire
All quotes →How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation?
Paulo FreireRead
Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation. The content of that dialogue can and should vary in accordance with historical conditions and the level at which the oppressed perceive reality.
Paulo FreireRead
This is the sense in which I am obliged to be a listener. To listen to the student's doubts, fears, and incompetencies that are part of the learning process. It is in listening to the student that I learn to speak with him or her.
Paulo FreireRead
This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation. And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade
Paulo FreireRead
The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot see that, in the egoistic pursuit of having as a possessing class, they suffocate in their own possessions and no longer are; they merely have.
Paulo FreireRead
Similar quotes
It's my view that gender is culturally formed, but it's also a domain of agency or freedom and that it is most important to resist the violence that is imposed by ideal gender norms, especially against those who are gender different, who are nonconforming in their gender presentation.
Judith ButlerRead
Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
RumiRead
To people like me, educated in post-war Britain, free speech has been a firm premise of the British way of life.
Roger ScrutonRead
I'm a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I'm even afraid of it - it's a learned affectation and it's just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.
Maya AngelouRead
I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts — just as I would have if I had made more close friends.
Richard RortyRead
Once you step inside, history has to be rewritten to include you. A fiction develops a story that weaves you into the social fabric, giving you roots and a local identity. You are assimilated, and in erasing your differences and making you one of their own, the community can maintain belief in its wholeness and purity. After two or three generations, nobody remembers the story is fiction. It has become fact. And this is how history is made.
Camilla GibbRead