Cesar Chavez famous quotes

In 1968, I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry, and unhappy like we do..
-- Cesar Chavez

#Animal #Unhappy #Vegetarian

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?
-- Cesar Chavez

#Education #Real #Book

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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#People #Temptation #Poverty

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. Jesus does not promise that it will be an easy way to live life and His own life certainly points in a hard direction; but it does promise that we will be "satisfied" (not stuffed; but satisfied). He promises that by giving life we will find life - full, meaningful life as God meant it.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Meaningful #Jesus #Struggle

Jesus' life and words are a challenge at the same time that they are Good News. They are a challenge to those of us who are poor and oppressed. By His life He is calling us to give ourselves to others, to sacrifice for those who suffer, to share our lives with our brothers and sisters who are also oppressed. He is calling us to "hunger and thirst after justice" in the same way that we hunger and thirst after food and water: that is, by putting our yearning into practice.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Brother #Jesus #Sacrifice

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 [and sister] 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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Brother #Children #Mean

We have suffered unnumbered ills and crimes in the name of the Law of the Land. Our men, women and children have suffered not only the basic brutality of stoop labor, and the most obvious injustices of the system; they have also suffered the desperation of knowing that the system caters to the greed of callous men and not to our needs. Now we will suffer for the purpose of ending the poverty, the misery, and the injustice, with the hope that our children will not be exploited as we have been. They have imposed hungers on us, and now we hunger for justice.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Children #Sacrifice #Men

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 #Sacrifice #Sweat

A movement with some lasting organization is a lot less dramatic than a movement with a lot of demonstrations and a lot of marching and so forth. The more dramatic organization does catch attention quicker. Over the long haul, however, it's a lot more difficult to keep together because you're not building solid...A lasting organization is one in which people will continue to build, develop and move when you are not there.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Moving #Organization #Long

The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Technique #Doe #Violent

The people who give you their food give you their heart.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Heart #People #Giving

Grant me courage to serve others; For in service there is true life.
-- Cesar Chavez

#True Life #Grants

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. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Inspiring #Dog #Animal

To make a great dream come true, the first requirement is a great capacity to dream; the second is persistence.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Dream #Persistence #Requirements

We have seen the future, and the future is ours.
-- Cesar Chavez

When you sacrifice, you force others to sacrifice. It's an extremely powerful weapon.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Powerful #Sacrifice #Weapons

I would not take one cup of coffee from a grower...There's not a good one. I hate them. A few presents, a little talk, then the noose. That's how capitalism works.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Hate #Coffee #Littles

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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Giving Up #Struggle #Order

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. Cesar Chavez Address to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Nov. 9, 1984
-- Cesar Chavez

#Peace #Pride #San Francisco

You are never strong enough that you don't need help.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Change #Strength #Being Strong

Who gets the risks? The risks are given to the consumer, the unsuspecting consumer and the poor work force. And who gets the benefits? The benefits are only for the corporations, for the money makers.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Risk #Benefits #Corporations

There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Hard Work #Commitment #Acceptance

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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Opportunity #Giving #Justice

Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Other Cultures #Diversity #Disrespect

In non-violence the cause has to be just and clear as well as the means.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Mean #Violence #Causes

These observations tie in directly with the whole question of organizing. Why do we have leaders? We put some people out in the fields and all of a sudden they hit, they click. Everyone's happy with them and they begin to move mountains. With other people there are problems and heartaches. They just don't go. When we look and see what's happening, almost invariably the differences are along the lines of willingness to sacrifice and work long hours.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Leadership #Moving #Sacrifice

There are many reasons for why a man does what de 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

#Leadership #Men #People

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. When the poor share some of the power that the affluent now monopolize, we will give a damn.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Moon #Oil #People

I have met many, many farm workers and friends who love justice and who are willing to sacrifice for what is right. They have a quality about them that reminds me of the beatitudes. They are living examples that Jesus' promise is true: they have ben hungry and thirsty for righteousness and they have been satisfied. 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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Jesus #Believe #Sacrifice

(Farm workers) are involved in the planting and the cultivation and the harvesting of the greatest abundance of food known in this society. They bring in so much food to feed you and me and the whole country and enough food to export to other places. 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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Country #Ironic #Abundance

Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Educational #Teaching #Years

The end of all knowledge must be the building up of character.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Educational #Character #Building

...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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Character #Mean #Thinking

Farm workers everywhere are angry and worried that we cannot win without violence. We have proved it before through persistence, hard work, faith and willingness to sacrifice. We can win and keep our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the spirit of all people if we do it through a re-dedication and re-commitment to the struggle for justice through non-violence.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Struggle #Hard Work #Commitment

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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Years #People #Peaceful

Across the San Joaquin valley, across California, across the entire nation, wherever there are injustices against men and women and children who work in the fields - there you will see our flags - with the black eagle with the white and red background, flying. Our movement is spreading like flames across a dry plain.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Children #Men #Eagles

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

#Powerful #Government #Judging

There 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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Hate #Struggle #Giving

The basis for peace is respecting all creatures.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Bases #Creatures

"The life of the union depends upon more people getting to share the limelight, because with the limelight also comes responsibility and with the responsibility comes a little sharing of the load." "There isn't enough money to organize poor people. There never is enough money to organize anyone. If you put it on the basis of money, you're not going to succeed."
-- Cesar Chavez

#Responsibility #People #Unions

Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about life.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Educational #Unions #Lines

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

#Giving Up #Believe #Fall

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. Non-violence in action is a very potent force and it can't be stopped. The people who are struggling have the complete say-so. No man-made law, no human ruler, no army can destroy this. There is no way it can be destroyed... And so, if we have the capacity to endure, if we have the patience, things will change.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Powerful #Struggle #Army

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Hands #People #Want

Non violence means people in action. People have to understand that with non-violence goes a hell of a lot of organization.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Mean #Organization #People

There's no reason to be non-violent. There's no challenge unless you are living for people.
-- Cesar Chavez

#People #Challenges #Reason

Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Commitment #People #Demand

We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Inspiring #Animal #People

When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines the kind of men we are.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Honesty #Men #Accountability

...there has to be someone who is willing to do it, who is willing to take whatever risks are required. I don't think it can be done with money alone. The person has to be dedicated to the task. There has to be some other motivation.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Motivation #Commitment #Thinking

Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Animal #Cruelty #Live Well

The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Peace #Firsts #Principles

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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Inspirational #Strength #Success

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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Caring #Men #Rights

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

#Peace #Men #People

It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Giving #Belief

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

#Change #Ambition #Achievement

Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Kindness #Compassion #Animal

Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak... Non-violence is hard work.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Peace #War #Hard Work

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

#Peace #Powerful #Believe

Violence just hurts those who are already hurt...Instead of exposing the brutality of the oppressor, it justifies it.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Hurt #Peace #Violence

There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Peace #Violence #Defeat

Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Character #Reflection #Growth

We know we cannot be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them -- exploiting animals in the name of science, exploiting animals in the name of sport, exploiting animals in the name of fashion, and yes, exploiting animals in the name of food.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Sports #Fashion #Animal

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.
-- Cesar Chavez

#Love #Food #Heart