There’s no reason to be non-violent. There’s no challenge unless you are living for people.
CESAR CHAVEZWe are suffering. We have suffered. And we are not afraid to suffer in order to win our cause.
More Cesar Chavez Quotes
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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.
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In giving of yourself, you will discover a whole new life full of.
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If we are full of hatred, we can’t really do our work. Hatred saps all that strength and energy we need to plan.
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The only ones who make things change are fanatics. If you’re not a fanatic around here, you can’t cut it.
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Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.
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If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.
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I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!
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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.
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It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we will use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity.
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The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
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There’s no turning back. We will win. We are winning because ours is a revolution of mind and heart.
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It’s amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease.
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It takes a lot of punishment to be able to do anything to change the social order.
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Do not romanticize the poor. We are all people, human beings subject to the same temptations and faults as all others. Our poverty damages our dignity.
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What is at stake is human dignity. If a man is not accorded respect he cannot respect himself and if he does not respect himself, he cannot demand it.
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We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.
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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 man – you’ve got to change his environment as you do it.
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Violence just hurts those who are already hurt. Instead of exposing the brutality of the oppressor, it justifies it.
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Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.
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The people united will never be defeated.
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We’ll organize workers in this movement as long as we’re willing to sacrifice. The moment we stop sacrificing, we stop organizing.
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You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.
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The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God.
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I’ve always maintained that it isn’t the form that’s going to make the difference. It isn’t the rule or the procedure or the ideology, but it’s human beings that will make it.
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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.
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There are many reasons for why a man does what he does. To be himself he must be able to give it all. If a leader cannot give it all he cannot expect his people to give anything.
CESAR CHAVEZ