If I am a pure product of genetic, cultural, or class determination, I have no responsibility for my action in the world and, therefore, it is not possible for me to speak of ethics. Of course, this assumption of responsibility does not mean that we are not conditioned genetically, culturally, and socially. It means that we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined.

Whereas banking education anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality. The former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality.

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

Reading is not walking on the words; it's grasping the soul of them.

Dialogue cannot exist, however, in the absence of a profound love for the world and its people.

For cultural invasion to succeed, it is essential that those invaded become convinced of their intrinsic inferiority.

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.