To Speak A True Word Is To

The Oppressed, Having Internalized The Image Of The Oppressor And Adopted His Guidelines, Are Fearful Of Freedom.

How Can The Oppressed, As Divided, Unauthentic Beings, Participate In Developing The Pedagogy Of Their Liberation? Only As They Discover Themselves To Be 'hosts' Of The Oppressor Can They Contribute To The Midwifery Of Their Liberating Pedagogy. As Long As They Live In The Duality In Which To Be Is To Be Like And To Be Like Is To Be Like The Oppressor, This Contribution Is Impossible. The Pedagogy Of The Oppressed Is An Instrument For Their Critical Discovery That Both They And Their Oppressors Are Manifestations Of Dehumanization.

There Is, In Fact, No Teaching Without Learning.

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.

[t]he More Radical The Person Is, The More Fully He Or She Enters Into Reality So That, Knowing It Better, He Or She Can Transform It. This Individual Is Not Afraid To Confront, To Listen, To See The World Unveiled. This Person Is Not Afraid To Meet The People Or To Enter Into A Dialogue With Them. This Person Does Not Consider Himself Or Herself The Proprietor Of History Or Of All People, Or The Liberator Of The Oppressed; But He Or She Does Commit Himself Or Herself, Within History, To Fight At Their Side.