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Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn Quotes

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Famous Howard Zinn Quotes

“Surely, if it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish," it is their right to criticize, even severely, policies they believe destructive of the ends for which government has been established. This principle, in the Declaration of Independence, suggests that true patriotism lies in supporting the values the country is supposed to cherish: equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. When our government compromises, undermines, or attacks those values, it is being unpatriotic.”

PeopleIfsBelieveHas BeensEndsCountryGovernmentLyingValuesLibertyPrinciplesPolicyIndependencePursuitCompromiseDestructiveCriticizeCherishDeclarationPursuit Of HappinessAbolishDeclaration Of IndependenceUnpatrioticTrue Patriotism
Book:A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
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“The inferior position of blacks, the exclusion of Indians from the new society, the establishment of supremacy for the rich and powerful in the new nation--all this was already settled in the colonies by the time of the Revolution. With the English out of the way, it could now be put on paper, solidified, regularized, made legitimate by the Constitution of the United States.”

WayMadeStatesNationsUnitedPowerfulUnited StatesRichPositionRevolutionPaperConstitutionIndianEstablishmentInferiorsColonyExclusionSupremacyConstitution Of The United States
Book:A People's History of the United States
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“The Constitution. . . illustrates the complexity of the American system: that it serves the interests of a wealthy elite, but also does enough for small property owners, for middle-income mechanics and farmers, to build a broad base of support. The slightly prosperous people who make up this base of support are buffers against the blacks, the Indians, the very poor whites. They enable the elite to keep control with a minimum of coercion, a maximum of law--all made palatable by the fanfare of patriotism and unity.”

PeopleDoeMadeEnoughLawInterestPoorSupportMiddleConstitutionPropertyUnityIncomeIndianComplexityOwnersWealthyBroadsFarmersElitesMinimumMechanicMaximumProsperousCoercionFanfare
Book:A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
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“We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness-embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television. This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas.”

YearsLongIdeasMomentsFactsSeemsCertainBeliefBornSimpleAttentionConsciousnessResponsibilityOur LivesInformationTelevisionMonthsPrejudiceRadioCriticalNewspapersEnormousConclusionFixedOrthodoxSchoolingEmbeddedMoments In Our LivesImbibing
Author:Howard Zinn
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“The power of a bold idea uttered publicly in defiance of dominant opinion cannot be easily measured. Those special people who speak out in such a way as to shake up not only the self-assurance of their enemies, but the complacency of their friends, are precious catalysts for change.”

PeopleWayIdeasSelfSpeakOpinionEnemySpecialShakesDominantAssuranceComplacencyDefianceCatalystSpeaks OutSelf AssuranceSpecial PeopleCatalyst For Change
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“There is a power that can be created out of pent-up indignation, courage, and the inspiration of a common cause, and that if enough people put their minds and bodies into that cause, they can win. It is a phenomenon recorded again and against in the history of popular movements against injustice all over the world.”

PeopleIfsWorldMindEnoughBodyInspirationWinningCausesCommonMovementInjusticePhenomenonMind And BodyIndignation
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage, sacrifice, patience... War is not inevitable, however persistent it is, however long a history it has in human affairs. It does not come out of some instinctive human need. It is manufactured by political leaders, who then must make a tremendous effort--by enticement, by propaganda, by coercion--to mobilize a normally reluctant population to go to war.”

NeedsHumansLongDoeWarPoliticalImaginationEffortLeaderIssuesSacrificeAffairPopulationInevitablePropagandaOur TimeSubstitutesPersistentCoercionReluctantIngenuityPolitical LeadersHuman NeedsEnticement
Author:Howard Zinn
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“History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government tells you. But knowing a bit of history--while it would not absolutely prove the government was lying in a given instance--might make you skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you would find out the truth.”

IfsGovernmentMightPastLyingAsksGivenBitsBornAcceptingKnowingProveYesterdayInstanceSkepticalCritical ThinkingHandyKnowledge Of The Past
Author:Howard Zinn
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“That chain of relationships made me think of how connections are made--you read a book, you meet a person, you have a single experience, and your life is changed in some way. No act, therefore, however small, should be dismissed or ignored.”

ThinkingWayShouldPersonsMadeBookLife IsChangedConnectionsChainsIgnored
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“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.”

HumansSometimesLyingHuman BeingsPowerfulPossibilityMachinesPressureIndependenceMovedHistoricalInjusticeDareConformityConform
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“I've always resented the smug statements of politicians, media commentators, corporate executives who talked of how, in America, if you worked hard you would become rich. The meaning of that was if you were poor it was because you hadn't worked hard enough. I knew this was a lite, about my father and millions of others, men and women who worked harder than anyone, harder than financiers and politicians, harder than anybody if you accept that when you work at an unpleasant job that makes it very hard work indeed.”

IfsMenHardEnoughJobsAmericaFatherPoorAcceptingMillionsRichMediaHard WorkPoliticianMen And WomenHarderStatementsCorporateExecutivesCommentatorsBecome RichFinanciers
Author:Howard Zinn
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“Human beings, whatever their backgrounds, are more open than we think, that their behavior cannot be confidently predicted from their past, that we are all creatures vulnerable to new thoughts, new attitudes. And while such vulnerability creates all sorts of possibilities, both good and bad, its very existence is exciting. It means that no human being should be written off, no change in thinking deemed impossible.”

ThinkingShouldHumansMeanPastHuman BeingsExistenceAttitudeImpossibleWrittenPossibilityCreaturesBehaviorExcitingBackgroundsVulnerableVulnerabilityGood And BadNew ThoughtNew Attitude
Book:The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy
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“The courtroom is one instance of the fact that while our society may be liberal and democratic in some large and vague sense, its moving parts, its smaller chambers--its classrooms, its workplaces, its corporate boardrooms, its jails, its military barracks--are flagrantly undemocratic, dominated by one commanding person or a tiny elite of power.”

MayPersonsFactsMovingMilitaryDemocraticTinyInstanceCorporateOur SocietyJailClassroomElitesVagueWorkplaceChamberCourtroomMoving Parts
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“I had always insisted that a good education was a synthesis of book learning and involvement in social action, that each enriched the other. I wanted my students to know that the accumulation of knowledge, while fascinating in itself, is not sufficient as long as so many people in the world have no opportunity to experience that fascination.”

PeopleKnowsWorldLongBookActionWantedOpportunitySocialStudentsSufficientFascinatingFascinationInvolvementAccumulationSynthesisGood EducationSocial ActionBook Learning
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“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.”

ThinkingShouldHumansHopeHuman BeingsCompassionVictoryFutureInfiniteOur FutureMarvelousHuman HistoryMy FutureSuccessionDefianceHope For The FutureHopeful Future
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“Emma Willard told the legislature that the education of women "has been too exclusively directed to fit them for displaying to advantage the charms of youth and beauty" The problem, she said, was that "the taste of men, whatever it might happen to be, has made into a standard for the formation of the female character." Reason and religion teach us, she said, that "we too are primary existences...not the satellites of men.”

MenHas BeensMadeSaidReasonCharacterProblemMightHappensExistenceTeachYouthFitTasteStandardsAdvantageFemalePrimariesCharmFormationLegislatureFemale CharactersSatellitesEmma
Book:A People's History of the United States
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“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.”

IfsWorldCountryGovernmentJusticePrinciplesDemocracyCitizensWorshipFellowsBlindLoyaltyDefinedObedienceFlagsSubmissiveAnthemBlind Obedience
Book:Declarations of Independence: Cross-examining American Ideology
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“I have come to believe that our lives can be turned in a different direction, our minds adopt a different way of thinking, by some significant, though small event. That belief can be frightening, or exhilarating, depending on whether you just contemplate it or do something with it.”

ThinkingWayMindBelieveDifferentBeliefJusticeOur LivesEventsDiversitySocial JusticeSignificantDifferent WaysContemplatingFrighteningWay Of ThinkingExhilaratingDifferent DirectionsSmall Events
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“Let's face a historical truth: we have never had a "free market", we have always had government intervention in the economy, and indeed that intervention has been welcomed by the captains of finance and industry. They had no quarrel with "big government" when it served their needs.”

NeedsHas BeensBigsGovernmentFacesReligionEconomyAtheismIndustryHistoricalAtheistFinanceCaptainsFree MarketQuarrelsInterventionBig GovernmentAnti ReligiousGovernment InterventionHistorical Truth
Author:Howard Zinn
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“Is not nationalism - that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder - one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking - cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on - have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.”

ThinkingWayHas BeensEvilReligiousChildhoodMassRacismHatredMurderBoundariesDevotionOur TimeNationalismFlagsFierceWay Of ThinkingAnthemReligious Hatred
Book:A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
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“With the indiscriminate nature of modern military technology (no such thing as a "smart bomb," it turns out) all wars are wars against civilians, and are therefore inherently immoral. This is true even when a war is considered "just," because it is fought against a tyrant, against an aggressor, to correct a stolen boundary.”

WarTurnsTechnologyModernMilitarySmartBoundariesBombsTyrantsAntiwarImmoralStolenCiviliansAggressors
Book:Howard Zinn on War
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“We've never had our injustices rectified from the top, from the president or Congress, or the Supreme Court, no matter what we learned in junior high school about how we have three branches of government, and we have checks and balances, and what a lovely system. No. The changes, important changes that we've had in history, have not come from those three branches of government. They have reacted to social movements.”

ImportantMatterGovernmentSchoolThreeSocialPresidentMovementBalanceHigh SchoolNo Matter WhatCourtInjusticeCongressLovelySupremeChecksBranchesSupreme CourtJuniorsJunior HighSocial MovementsBranches Of GovernmentHigh School JuniorThree Branches Of Government
Author:Howard Zinn
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“The mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction-so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and so disrespectful, by inattention, to people's movements-that we need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission.”

PeopleNeedsBookStatesMovementMountainSubmissionCrushedRespectfulStatesmenHistory BooksDisrespectfulInattention
Book:A People's History of the United States
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“We cannot be secure by limiting our liberties, as some of our political leaders are demanding, but only by expanding themWe should take our example not from the military and political leaders shouting 'retaliate' and 'war' but from the doctors and nurses and firemen and policemen who have been saving lives in the midst of mayhem, whose first thoughts are not violence, but healing, and not vengeance, but compassion.”

ShouldFirstsHas BeensWarPoliticalHealingCompassionLibertyLeaderViolenceMilitaryExampleDoctorsSecureSavingMidstNurseVengeanceExpandingPolicemenShoutingPolitical LeadersSave A LifeFiremanMayhemDoctors And Nurses
Author:Howard Zinn
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