35 phrases by Paulo Freire to reflect on education

He is the patron saint of Brazilian education and was considered one of the most notable thinkers in the history of world pedagogy. To the phrases by Paulo Freire (1921-1997) can serve as a stimulus to reflect on the learning process, communication and society. We selected 35 options, which can be shared on social media!

What is Paulo Freire’s most famous phrase?

1 – “When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to be the oppressor.”

This is one of the most famous quotes by the educator and philosopher from Pernambuco. It proposes a transformation in mentality through education that makes people think.

Quotes by Paulo Freire education

2 – “No one educates anyone, no one educates themselves, men educate each other, mediated by the world.”

3 – “Reading the world precedes reading the word.”

4 – “Teaching is not transferring knowledge, but creating possibilities for its own production or construction.”

5 – “No one ignores everything. Nobody knows everything. We all know something. We all ignore something. That’s why we always learn.”

6 – “There is no such thing as knowing more or knowing less: there is different knowledge.”

7 – “Education does not transform the world. Education changes people. People transform the world.”

8 – “Joy does not just come from finding something, but is part of the search process. And teaching and learning cannot happen outside of search, outside of beauty and joy.”

9 – “Even though they want good teachers for their children, few parents want their children to be teachers. This shows us the recognition that the work of educating is hard, difficult and necessary.”

10 – “If education alone does not transform society, without it neither will society change.”

11 – “It would be a naive attitude to expect the dominant classes to develop a form of education that would allow the dominated classes to perceive social injustices in a critical way.”

12 – “Education, whatever it may be, is always a theory of knowledge put into practice.”

13 – “Education makes sense because women and men learn that through learning they can make and remake themselves, because women and men are capable of taking responsibility for themselves as beings capable of knowing.”

Quotes by Paulo Freire Tumblr

14 – “The teacher is, naturally, an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can form the profile, can shape the students. What an educator does in teaching is to make it possible for students to become themselves.”

15 – “It is not enough to know how to read that ‘Eve saw the grape’. It is necessary to understand what position Eva occupies in her social context, who works to produce the grapes and who profits from this work.”

16 – “No pedagogy that is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed, treating them as unhappy and presenting them with their models of emulation among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the fight for their redemption.”

17 – “And one of the necessary conditions for thinking right is not being too sure of our certainties.”

18 – “The terrible consequences of negative thinking are realized very late.”

19 – “Oppression is domesticating. A very serious obstacle to the achievement of liberation is that the oppressive reality absorbs those who are in it and, thus, acts to submerge the consciousness of human beings.”

20 – “In truth, only those who think right, even if they sometimes think wrong, are the ones who can teach people to think right.”

21 – “I move as an educator, because, first, I move as people.”

22 – “It is essential to reduce the distance between what is said and what is done, in such a way that, at a given moment, your speech is your practice.”

23 – “Leaders who do not act through dialogue, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize people – they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.”

24 – “Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle.”

25 – “Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuous and hopeful investigation that human beings seek in the world, with the world and with each other.”

26 – “No one is born made, it is by experiencing ourselves in the world that we make ourselves.”

Paulo Freire’s phrases about hope

27 – “No one frees anyone. People free themselves in communion.”

28 – “If I cannot encourage impossible dreams, I should not deny the right to dream with those who dream.”

29 – “As I fight, I am moved by hope; and if I fight with hope, I can hope.”

Paulo Freire phrases love

30 – “Reading must be an act of love.”

31 – “Love is an act of courage.”

32 – “Love is an intimate intercommunication of two consciences that respect each other. Each one has the other as the subject of their love. It’s not about appropriating someone else.”

Paulo Freire’s phrases about communication

33 – “Language is never neutral.”

34 – “Word is not the privilege of some people, but the right of everyone.”

35 – “Glorifying democracy and silencing the people is a farce; talking about humanism and denying people is a lie.”

Read more: phrases by Paulo Coelho, phrases by Cora Coralina It is Dalai Lama phrases.