Cesar Chavez Quotes
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.
When you have people together who believe in something very strongly - whether it's religion or politics or unions - things happen.
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.
Non-violence exacts a very high price from one who practices it. But once you are able to meet that demand then you can do most things.
Talk is cheap...It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in.
The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
We are suffering. We have suffered. And we are not afraid to suffer in order to win our cause.
Violence just hurts those who are already hurt...Instead of exposing the brutality of the oppressor, it justifies it.
Nonviolence is really tough. You don't practice nonviolence at conferences; you practice it on picket-lines.
Look at the John Birch Society. Look at Hitler. The reactionaries are always better organizers.
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.
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.
However important the struggle is and however much misery and poverty and degradation exist, we know that it cannot be more important than one human life.
In the no-nonsense school of adversity, which we did not choose for ourselves, we are learning how to operate a labor union.
We'll organize workers in this movement as long as we're willing to sacrifice. The moment we stop sacrificing, we stop organizing.
If you're not frightened that you might fail, you'll never do the job. If you're frightened, you'll work like crazy.
Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.
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.
Non violence means people in action. People have to understand that with non-violence goes a hell of a lot of organization.
We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves...
We don't know how God chooses martyrs. We do know that they give us the most precious gift they possess - their very lives.
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.
The strike and the boycott, they have cost us much. What they have not paid us in wages, better working conditions, and new contracts, they have paid us in self-respect and human dignity.
Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.
We are organizers at heart. Most of us in the movement take great pride in being able to put things together.
Our union represents a breaking away...represents sharing a power, represent questioning, represents a new force...however long it takes, we are geared for a struggle.
If you win non-violently, then you have a double victory, you have not only won your fight, but you remain free.
Our conviction is that human life and limb are a very special possession given by God to man and that no one has the right to take that away, in any cause, however just...
We are certain God's will is that all men share in the good things this earth produces.
The thing that we have going for us is that people are willing to sacrifice themselves.
We do not need to kill or destroy to win. We are a movement that builds and not destroys.
The only ones who make things change are fanatics. If you're not a fanatic around here, you can't cut it.
If we are full of hatred, we can't really do our work. Hatred saps all that strength and energy we need to plan.
Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about life.
We farm workers are closest to food production. We were the first to recognize the serious health hazards of agriculture pesticides to both consumers and ourselves.
