# Paulo Freire's most quoted lines (with sources)

"No one educates anyone else", reading the world before reading the word and the neutrality that sides with the oppressor: the most quoted lines of Paulo Freire, from Pedagogy of the Oppressed to Pedagogy of Freedom, with their source and without the misattributed ones.

- 26 votes · 11 items
- Mar 19, 2025 · maratonista_madeira
- https://even.best/en/l/5074/paulo-freire-s-most-quoted-lines-with-sources

## Top 11

1. **People are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968).
2. **No one educates anyone else, no one educates himself; people educate each other, mediated by the world.** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968).
3. **Reading the world precedes reading the word.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Importance of the Act of Reading (1981).
4. **We all know something. We are all ignorant of something. That is why we are always learning.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Importance of the Act of Reading (1981).
5. **It is not in resignation but in rebellion against injustice that we will affirm ourselves.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Pedagogy of Freedom (1996).
6. **No one is ignorant of everything, no one knows everything.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — The Importance of the Act of Reading (1981).
7. **Man, as a historical being caught up in a permanent movement of searching, constantly makes and remakes his knowledge.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Education as the Practice of Freedom (1967).
8. **One of the great sins of school is to disregard everything the child brings to it. School decrees that before it there is nothing.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Pedagogy of Freedom (1996).
9. **Creating what does not yet exist should be the aim of every person who is alive.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Folha de S. Paulo, 8 January 1997.
10. **One of the most regrettable things for a human being is not to belong to his time, and so to feel like an exile in time.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Educar com a Mídia, ch. I.
11. **"Washing one's hands" in the face of oppression is reinforcing the power of the oppressor; it is siding with him.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Pedagogy of Freedom (1996).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.