Howard Zinn Quotes
Top 99 wise famous quotes and sayings by Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Howard Zinn on Wise Famous Quotes.
Since war itself is the most extreme form of terrorism, a war on terrorism is profoundly self-contradictory.
It was borrowed time anyway - the whole upper tenth of a nation living with the insouciance of a grand duc and the casualness of chorus girls.
There is an underside to every age about which history does not often speak, because history is written from records left by the privileged.
Americans have been taught that their nation is civilized and humane. But, too often, U.S. actions have been uncivilized and inhumane.
More than half the colonists who came to the North American shores in the colonial period came as servants.
Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.
The problem in this world is not civil disobedience ... th e problem in this world is civil obedience.
If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism?
Free white workers were better off than slaves or servants, but they still resented unfair treatment by the wealthier classes.
In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead.
If racism can't be shown to be natural then it is the result of certain conditions, and we are impelled to eliminate those conditions.
I do take the threat of terrorism seriously. You cannot eliminate that threat or diminish that threat by bombing a country.
(Jefferson's personal distaste for slavery must be put alongside the fact that he owned hundreds of slaves to the day he died).
Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act.
The principle is not that a human being cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to the United States.
strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought
When people don't understand that the government doesn't have their interests in mind, they're more susceptible to go to war.
The only hope lies in the fact that the American people - like people everywhere - are basically decent people with common sense.
In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli.
There is civil disobedience against the military machine, protest against police brutality directed especially at people of color.
Then Gregory lowered his voice, suddenly serious. "But it looks like we got to do it the hard way, and stay down here, and educate them.
I didn't want to spent a lot of close time with someone who believed that fun is a bourgeois indulgence.
What we have is a more sophisticated form of imperialism, which is economic. But lurking in the background, always ready to go, is an armed force.
Even if you assume presidents were democratically elected they still have no right to keep secrets from the American people.
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil ...
When a nation issues ultimatums, it leaves no room for compromise and ensures that war will continue.
Use the Day of Atonement not to pray for the dead but to act for the living, to rescue those about to die.
New York blacks could not vote unless they owned $250 in property (a qualification not applied to whites).
The establishment, whatever rewards it gives us, will also, if necessary to maintain it's control, kill us
The cry of the poor is is not always just, but if you don't listen to it, you will never know what justice is.
[W]e're taught that if one person kills another person, that is murder; but if a government kills a hundred thousand persons, that is patriotism.
When the United States fought in Vietnam, it was organized modern technology versus organized human beings, and the human beings won.
Ruling elites seem to have learned through the generations - consciously or not - that war makes them more secure against internal trouble.
They didn't give their lives for their country! their lives were taken from them by their government.
Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.
War is terrorism ... Terrorism is the willingness to kill large numbers of people for some presumably good cause. That's what terrorists are about.
Terrorism and war have something in common. They both involve the killing of innocent people to achieve what the killers believe is a good end.
When in all the nations of the world the rule of law is the darling of the leaders and the plague of the people, we ought to begin to recognize this.
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.
What motivates me is the desire to bring up a whole new generation of active citizens who believe in peace and social justice and will work for it.
If you join a fight for social justice you may win or lose, but just by being part of the struggle, you win, and your life will be better for it.
I am an anarchist, and according to anarchist principles nation states become obstacles to a true humanistic globalization.
Being fired has some of the advantages of dying without its supreme disadvantages. People say extra-nice things about you, and you get to hear them.
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.
People should go where they are not supposed to go, say what they are not supposed to say, and stay when they are told to leave.
Capitalism has always been a failure for the lower classes. It is now beginning to fail for the middle classes.
I always emphasize the historic role of people of color in organizing and protesting to achieve justice.
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.