Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.
CESAR CHAVEZThere is enough love and good will in our movement to give energy to our struggle and still have plenty left over to break down and change the climate of hate and fear around us.
More Cesar Chavez Quotes
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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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Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves – and be free.
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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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You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.
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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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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 you sacrifice, you force others to sacrifice. It’s an extremely powerful weapon.
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Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about life.
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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.
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Our language is the reflection of ourselves.
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Self dedication is a spiritual experience.
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Because we have suffered, and we are not afraid to suffer in order to survive, we are ready to give up everything – even our lives – in our struggle for justice.
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We must understand that the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline.
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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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There’s no reason to be non-violent. There’s no challenge unless you are living for people.
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I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry and unhappy like we do. I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom.
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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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When any person suffers for someone in greater need, that person is a human.
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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.
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We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community – and this nation.
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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 of man is sick.
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The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
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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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From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.
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We do not need to kill or destroy to win. We are a movement that builds and not destroys.
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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.
CESAR CHAVEZ