Maxine Greene

"We need schools and communities that call forth the best in people and help them imagine their possibilities."

"To be alive is to be engaged in the ongoing work of meaning-making."

"Art reminds us that another world is possible. It expands the boundaries of what we think is real."

"The struggle for social justice is inseparable from the work of education and transformation."

"We are called to be conscious witnesses to the suffering of others and to work for their liberation."

"The capacity for imagination is the foundation of moral life. Without it, we cannot imagine the suffering of others."

"Teaching requires faith—faith in the potential of human beings and in the possibility of a better world."

"We must learn to read between the lines, to see the world not as it is but as it might be."

"Freedom is not a state we achieve but a practice we engage in daily."

"The work of education is the work of liberation. It is about setting people free from ignorance and oppression."

"We are responsible for the world we create through our choices and actions."

"Art is a form of prayer, a way of reaching toward what is transcendent in human experience."

"The narrative of our lives is not predetermined. We are the authors of our own stories."

"To be truly educated is to be awakened to the complexities and contradictions of human experience."

"We need to cultivate what I call 'wide-awakeness'—a state of alert awareness and critical consciousness."

"Justice requires imagination. We must imagine how things could be otherwise before we can change them."

"The presence of beauty in our lives is necessary for our humanity. It nourishes something essential in us."

"We become more alive when we engage with art, with literature, with music—when we allow ourselves to be moved."

"Teaching is an act of freedom. It is about empowering others to think for themselves and imagine their own futures."

"The self is not a possession but a practice. We are always in the process of becoming."

"We must learn to see injustice not as inevitable but as something that can be changed."

"Art is dangerous because it awakens us, makes us dissatisfied with things as they are."

"To be human is to exist in tension between what is and what might be. This is where freedom lies."