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If you’re not frightened that you might fail, you’ll never do the job. If you’re frightened, you’ll work like crazy.

Cesar Chavez

The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Principle 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 man – you’ve got to change his environment as you do it.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Change Deep Man People Yourself
Through Gandhi and my own life experience, I have learned about nonviolence. I believe that human life is a very special gift from God, and that no one has a right to take that away in any cause, however just. I am convinced that nonviolence is more powerful than violence.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Believe Experience Learning Life Myself Powerful Violence
It’s ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Food Yourself
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.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Believe Creation Fall Give Up Imagination Lost Suffering Violence Win
Every time we sit at a table at night or in the morning to enjoy the fruits and grain and vegetables from our good earth, remember that they come from the work of men and women and children who have been exploited for generations.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Children Enjoyment Man Morning Night Oppression Time Women
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.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Children Live Ourselves Parents Sacrifice
History will judge societies and governments – and their institutions – not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.
CESAR CHAVEZ

History Judgement Need Powerful Rich
We believe that unions have always been about much more than the industries in which they operate. The fight is never about grapes or lettuce, It is always about people.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Believe Fight Food People
It takes a lot of punishment to be able to do anything to change the social order.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Change Punishment
If you give yourself totally to the nonviolence struggle for peace and justice you also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never be alone.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Alone Heart Justice Peace People Struggle Violence Yourself
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.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Dignity Himself Human Respect
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.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Leadership Myself People Talk
Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Best Destruction Ourselves Teaching
Nonviolence is really tough. You don’t practice nonviolence at conferences; you practice it on picket-lines.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Battle Practice Violence
You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.
CESAR CHAVEZ

Enough Help Need Strong Yourself

If you’re not frightened that you might fail, you’ll never do the job. If you’re frightened, you’ll work like crazy.

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If you’re not frightened that you might fail, you’ll never do the job. If you’re frightened, you’ll work like crazy.

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Popular Authors

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