Cesar Chavez Quotes

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

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.

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

The people united will never be defeated.

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.

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

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

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.

The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.

Together, all things are possible

In giving of yourself, you will discover a whole new life full of meaning and love.

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

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.

Talk is cheap...It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in.

What I do shows people what kind of person I am.

Our struggle is not easy. Those who oppose our cause are rich and powerful and they have many allies in high places. We are poor. Our allies are few. But we have something the rich do not own. We have our bodies and spirits and the justice of our cause as our weapons.

You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.

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

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

You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves - and be free.

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?

Never, never is it possible to reach someone if you become angry or bitter only love and gentleness can do it. Maybe not this time but maybe the next or the hundredth time.

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.

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.