Howard Zinn Quotes

Quotes about:

• To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

  Howard Zinn

  Hope, Kindness, Future

  201 Copy quote
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  We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.

  Howard Zinn

  Inspirational, Life, Change

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.208, Beacon Press

  156 Copy quote

• Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.

  Howard Zinn

  Inspirational, Death, Running

  209 Copy quote

• They have the guns, we have the poets. Therefore, we will win.

  Howard Zinn

  Gun, Winning, Poet

  79 Copy quote
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  But remember, this power of the people on top depends on the obedience of the people below. When people stop obeying, they have no power.

  Howard Zinn

  People, Remember, Obedience

  Howard Zinn (2012). “Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009”, p.299, Haymarket Books

  118 Copy quote

• Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.

  Howard Zinn

  Peace, War, History

  Howard Zinn (2011). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.410, Seven Stories Press

  74 Copy quote
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  But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is... to tell the truth.

  Howard Zinn

  Revolutionary, Telling The Truth, Truth Be Told

  Howard Zinn (1999). “Marx in Soho: A Play on History”, p.4, South End Press

  118 Copy quote

• If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.

  Howard Zinn

  Loyalty, Country, Government

  Howard Zinn (1990). “Declarations of Independence: Cross-examining American Ideology”, Perennial

  101 Copy quote

• Civil disobedience is not something outside the realm of democracy. Democracy requires civil disobedience. Without civil disobedience democracy does not exist.

  Howard Zinn

  Democracy, Doe, Realms

  11 Copy quote

• Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.

  Howard Zinn

  Inspirational, Small Acts, People

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.208, Beacon Press

  77 Copy quote

• When I say history is a matter of life and death, I mean this: If you really don't know history, you are a victim of whatever the authorities tell you. You have no way of checking up on them. You have no way of deciding whether there is any truth in what they are saying.

  Howard Zinn

  Mean, Life And Death, Matter

  86 Copy quote

• I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.

  Howard Zinn

  Powerful, Ideas, Roots

  95 Copy quote
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  There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

  Howard Zinn

  Peace, War, Patriotic

  Howard Zinn (1993). “Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian”, p.118, South End Press

  101 Copy quote

• When we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress.

  Howard Zinn

  Government, Speaks Out, Together We Can

  Howard Zinn (2013). “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress”, p.16, City Lights Books

  34 Copy quote

• The struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the apparent overwhelming power of those who seem invincible in their determination to hold on to it. That apparent power has, again and again, proved vulnerable to human qualities less measurable than bombs and dollars: moral fervor, determination, unity, organization, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, courage, patience.

  Howard Zinn

  Determination, Struggle, Sacrifice

  Howard Zinn (1993). “Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian”, p.27, South End Press

  16 Copy quote

• To ward off alienation and gloom, it is only necessary to remember the unremembered heroes of the past, and to look around us for the unnoticed heroes of the present.

  Howard Zinn

  Hero, Past, Looks

  Howard Zinn, Dean Birkenkamp, Wanda Rhudy (2016). “Uncommon Sense: From the Writings of Howard Zinn”, p.13, Routledge

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• [...] There is none that disperses its control more complexly through the voting system, the work situation, the church, the family, the school, the mass media - none more successful in mollifying opposition with reforms, isolating people from one another, creating patriotic loyalty.

  Howard Zinn

  Loyalty, School, Patriotic

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.632, Routledge

  9 Copy quote

• But human beings are not machines, and however powerful the pressure to conform, they sometimes are so moved by what they see as injustice that they dare to declare their independence. In that historical possibility lies hope.

  Howard Zinn

  Powerful, Lying, Historical

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.162, Beacon Press

  8 Copy quote
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  Education can, and should be, dangerous.

  Howard Zinn

  Should, Dangerous

  Howard Zinn (2011). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.563, Seven Stories Press

  82 Copy quote

• How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?

  Howard Zinn

  War, Terrorism, Terrorist

  34 Copy quote

• Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.

  Howard Zinn

  Direct Action, Voting, Democracy

  Howard Zinn (2012). “The Historic Unfulfilled Promise”, p.208, City Lights Publishers

  25 Copy quote

• If there is going to be change, real change, it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves. That's how change happens.

  Howard Zinn

  Peace, Real, People

  10 Copy quote

• The future is an infinite succession of presents.

  Howard Zinn

  Future, Compassion, Infinite

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.208, Beacon Press

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• Democracy depends on citizens being informed, and since our media, especially television (which is the most important source of news for most Americans) reports mostly what the people in power do, and repeats what the people in power say, the public is badly informed, and it means we cannot really say we have a functioning democracy.

  Howard Zinn

  Mean, Media, People

  Interview with Stefan Sirucek, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 30, 2010.

  96 Copy quote

• Whenever I become discouraged (which is on alternate Tuesdays, between three and four) I lift my spirits by remembering: The artists are on our side! I mean those poets and painters, singers and musicians, novelists and playwrights who speak to the world in a way that is impervious to assault because they wage the battle for justice in a sphere which is unreachable by the dullness of ordinary political discourse.

  Howard Zinn

  Mean, Artist, Justice

  Howard Zinn (2012). “The Historic Unfulfilled Promise”, p.65, City Lights Publishers

  22 Copy quote

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