some may think that to affirm dialogue—the encounter of women and men in the world in order to transform the world—is naively and subjectively idealistic. there is nothing, however, more real or concrete than people in the world and with the world, than humans with other humans.

I cannot be a teacher without exposing who I am.

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

One of the methods of manipulation is to inoculate individuals with the bourgeois appetite for personal success.

Dialogue cannot exist without humility.

I have never said, as is sometimes believed, or even suggested that lower-class children should not learn the so-called educated norm of the Portuguese language of Brazil. What I have said is that the problems of language always involve ideological questions and, along with them, questions of power.

The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is him/herself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow.