A symbol is an important thing. That is why we chose an Aztec eagle. It gives pride. When people see it they know it means dignity.
CESAR CHAVEZOnce social change begins, it cannot be reversed.
More Cesar Chavez Quotes
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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.
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I’m not going to ask for anything unless the workers want it. If they want it, they’ll ask for it.
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Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.
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True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire.
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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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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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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.
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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.
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To make a great dream come true, the first requirement is a great capacity to dream; the second is persistence.
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Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.
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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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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.
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We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.
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When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again.
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Concentration is inspiration. You must be completely overtaken by your work and your subject. Only then do all your influences and experience come up to the surface.
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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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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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Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return.
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Talk is cheap. It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in.
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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 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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Nonviolence is really tough. You don’t practice nonviolence at conferences; you practice it on picket-lines.
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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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When any person suffers for someone in greater need, that person is a human.
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Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other.
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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.
CESAR CHAVEZ