Character
"Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers."
Commitment
"Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return."
"The name of the game is to talk to people. If you don't talk to people, you can't get started.... You’re not going to organize everything; you're just going to get it started.”
"We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure."
"We must understand that the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline.”
"In this world it is possible to achieve great material wealth, to live an opulent life. But a life built upon those things alone leaves a shallow legacy. In the end, we will be judged by other standards."
Community
"We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about prosperity for our community.... Our ambitions must include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own."
"When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So, it how we use our lives that determines what kind of [people] we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life."
"You are never strong enough that you don't need help."
Culture
"Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures."
"We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community - and this nation."
Education
"A word as to the education of the heart. We don't believe that this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through the loving touch of the teacher."
"Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity?"
"The end of all education should surely be service to others."
"The end of all knowledge must be the building up of character."
"Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment."
Farm workers
"(Farm workers) are involved in the planting and the cultivation and the harvesting of the greatest abundance of food known in this society…. The ironic thing and the tragic thing is that after they make this tremendous contribution, they don't have any money or any food left for themselves."
"I have met many, many farm workers and friends who love justice and who are willing to sacrifice for what is right…. They are determined, patient people who believe in life and who give strength to others. They have given me more love and hope and strength than they will ever know."
"Our very lives are dependent, for sustenance, on the sweat and sacrifice of the campesinos. Children of farm workers should be as proud of their parents' professions as other children are of theirs."
Future Generations
"It is not enough to teach our young people to be successful...so they can realize their ambitions, so they can earn good livings, so they can accumulate the material things that this society bestows…it is not enough to progress as individuals while our friends and neighbors are left behind."
"Perhaps we can bring the day when children will learn from their earliest days that being fully man and fully woman means to give one's life to the liberation of the brother who suffers. It is up to each one of us. It won't happen unless we decide to use our lives to show the way."
"Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves-and be free."
Humanity
"Through non-violence, [one confirms] the humanity of others."
"When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering and caring for his own family, the whole community is sick."
Justice
"People who have lost their hunger for justice are not ultimately powerful. They are like sick people who have lost their appetite for what is truly nourishing. Such sick people should not frighten or discourage us. They should be prayed for along with the sick people who are in the hospital.
"The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most true to our nature."
"We are confident. We have ourselves. We know how to sacrifice. We know how to work. But even more than that, we are true believers in the whole idea of justice. Justice is so much on our side, that it is going to see us through.”
Leadership
"I am an organizer, not a union leader. A good organizer has to work hard and long. There are no shortcuts. You just keep talking to people, working with them, sharing, exchanging and they come along."
"I'm not going to ask for anything unless the workers want it. If they want it, they'll ask for it."
"There are many reasons for why a [person] does what [he or she] does. To be [oneself] one must be able to give it all. If a leader cannot give it all [he or she] cannot expect [their] people to give anything."
Motivation
¡Sí se puede!"
"If you're not frightened that you might fail, you'll never do the job. If you're frightened, you'll work like crazy."
Non-Violence
"The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating."
"There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence."
"You know, if people are not pacifists, it's not their fault. It's because society puts them in that spot. You've got to change it. You don't just change a [person] - you've got to change [their] environment."
"...people think non-violence is really weak and non-militant. These are misconceptions that people have because they don't understand what non-violence means. Non-violence takes more guts, if I can put it bluntly, than violence. Most violent acts are accomplished by getting the opponent off-guard, and it doesn't take that much character, I think, if one wants to do it."
"Imagine the National Guard being called against a group of peaceful people. How far can we get; how disgraceful can it become? It's the most disgraceful, the most wicked thing I've seen in all my years of organizing farm labor."
"Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak...Non-violence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win."
"Non-violence is very weak in the theoretical sense; it cannot defend itself. But it is most powerful in the action situation where people are using non-violence because they want desperately to bring about some change.”
"Violence just hurts those who are already hurt...Instead of exposing the brutality of the oppressor, it justifies it."
"When workers fall back on violence, they are lost. Oh, they might win some of their demands and might end a strike a little earlier, but they give up their imagination, their creativity, their will to work hard and to suffer for what they believe is right."
"In the final analysis it doesn't really matter what the political system is...We don't need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation."
"It is not good enough to know why we are oppressed and by whom. We must join the struggle for what is right and just."
"Talk is cheap...It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in."
"Until the chance for political participation is there, we who are poor will continue build power through boycotts, strikes, new union - whatever techniques we can develop. These attacks on the status quo will come, not because we hate, but because we know America can construct a humane society for all its citizens."
"Those who are willing to sacrifice and be of service have very little difficulty with people. They know what they are all about. People can't help but want to be near them. They help them; they work with them. That's what love is all about. It starts with your heart and radiates out."
Respect
We want to be recognized, yes, but not with a glowing epitaph on our tombstone..."
"Respect for faith of others stands on the same footing as culture.”
Sacrifice
"It is clearly evident that our path travels through a valley of tears well known to all farm workers, because in all valleys the way of the farm worker has been one of sacrifice for generations. Our sweat and our blood have fallen on this land to make other men rich. This Pilgrimage is a witness to the suffering we
have seen for generations."
"It takes a lot of punishment to be able to do anything to change the social order."
"The poor, you know, have a way of solving problems...they have a tremendous capacity for suffering. And so when you build a vehicle to get something done, as we've done here in the strike and the boycott, then they continue to suffer - and maybe a little bit more - but the suffering becomes less important because they see a chance of progress; sometimes progress itself. They've been suffering all their lives. It's a question of suffering with some kind of hope now. That's better than suffering with no hope at all."
"We can choose to use our lives for others to bring about a better and more just world for our children. People who make that choice will know hardship and sacrifice. But if you give yourself totally to the non-violence struggle for peace and justice you also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never be alone. And in giving of yourself you will discover a whole new life full of meaning and love."
"When any person suffers for someone in greater need, that person is a human."
"I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of [humanity] is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice.”
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