César Estrada Chávez was an American labor leader, community organizer, businessman, and Latino American civil rights activist. These Cesar Chavez quotes will motivate you.
Best Cesar Chavez Quotes
- “To make a great dream come true, the first requirement is a great capacity to dream; the second is persistence.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “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.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
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“The people united will never be defeated.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “Grant me courage to serve others; For in service there is true life.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
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“The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “In giving of yourself, you will discover a whole new life full of meaning and love.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak… Non-violence is hard work.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves – and be free.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Together, all things are possible” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.” ~ Cesar Chavez
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“What I do shows people what kind of person I am.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “(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
- “You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “It’s ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves.” ~ Cesar Chavez
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“We have looked into the future and the future is ours.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “When any person suffers for someone in greater need, that person is a human.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “In 1968, I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry, and unhappy like we do.” ~ Cesar Chavez
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“We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Non-violence is a very powerful weapon. Most people don’t understand the power of non-violence and tend to be amazed by the whole idea. Those who have been involved in bringing about change and see the difference between violence and non-violence are firmly committed to a lifetime of non-violence, not because it is easy or because it is cowardly, but because it is an effective and very powerful way.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “The name of the game is to talk to people. If you don’t talk to people, you can’t get started…You knock on twenty doors or so, and twenty guys tell you to go to hell, or that they haven’t got time. But maybe at the fortieth or sixtieth house you find the one guy who is all you need. You’re not going to organize everything; you’re just going to get it started.” ~ Cesar Chavez
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“Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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!” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community – and this nation.” ~ Cesar Chavez
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“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.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “We are confident. We have ourselves. We know how to sacrifice. We know how to work. We know how to combat the forces that oppose us. But even more than that, we are true believers in the whole idea of justice. Justice is so much on our side, that that is going to see us through.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most true to our nature.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “Those who are willing to sacrifice and be of service have very little difficulty with people. They know what they are all about. People can’t help but want to be near them. They help them; they work with them. That’s what love is all about. It starts with your heart and radiates out.” ~ Cesar Chavez
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“There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “I am an organizer, not a union leader. A good organizer has to work hard and long. There are no shortcuts. You just keep talking to people, working with them, sharing, exchanging and they come along.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “People who have lost their hunger for justice are not ultimately powerful. They are like sick people who have lost their appetite for what is truly nourishing. Such sick people should not frighten or discourage us. They should be prayed for along with the sick people who are in the hospital. “The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most true to our nature.”” ~ Cesar Chavez Quotes
- “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
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“In the final analysis it doesn’t really matter what the political system is…We don’t need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “We can choose to use our lives for others to bring about a better and more just world for our children. People who make that choice will know hardship and sacrifice. But if you give yourself totally to the non-violence struggle for peace and justice you also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never be alone. And in giving of yourself you will discover a whole new life full of meaning and love.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “We must understand that the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “[We believe that unions have always been about much more than the industries in which they operate.] The fight is never about grapes or lettuce, … It is always about people.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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 Quotes
- “There’s no turning back…We will win. We are winning because ours is a revolution of mind and heart.” ~ Cesar Chavez
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“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “The people who give you their food give you their heart.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Until the chance for political participation is there, we who are poor will continue to attack the soft part of the American system – its economic structure. We will build power through boycotts, strikes, new union – whatever techniques we can develop. These attacks on the status quo will come, not because we hate, but because we know America can construct a humane society for all its citizens – and that if it does not, there will chaos.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Society is made up of groups, and as long as the smaller groups do not have the same rights and the same protection as others – I don[‘t care whether you call it capitalism or communism -it is not going to work. Somehow, the guys in power have to be reached by counterpower, or through a change in their hearts and minds, or change will not come.” ~ Cesar Chavez
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“Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Just as Dr. King was a disciple of Gandhi and Christ, we must now be Dr. King’s disciples.
Dr. King challenged us to work for a greater humanity. I only hope that we are worthy of his challenge.” ~ Cesar Chavez - “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
- “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
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“When you sacrifice, you force others to sacrifice. It’s an extremely powerful weapon.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
