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Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn Quotes

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Famous Howard Zinn Quotes

“If we have learned anything in the past ten years, it is that these lovely things about America were never lovely. We have been expansionist and aggressive and mean to other people from the beginning. And we've been aggressive and mean to people in this country, and we've allocated the wealth of this country in a very unjust way. We've never had justice in our courts for the poor people, for black people, for radicals. Now how can we boast that America is a very special place? It's not that special. It really isn't.”

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Author:Howard Zinn
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“It had long been true, and prisoners knew this better than anyone, that the poorer you were the more likely you were to end up in jail. This was not just because the poor committed more crimes. In fact, they did. The rich did not have to commit crimes to get what they wanted; the laws were on their side. But when the rich did commit crimes, they often were not prosecuted, and if they were they could get out on bail, hire clever lawyers, get better treatment from judges. Somehow, the jails ended up full of poor black people.”

PeopleIfsLongEndsFactsWantedLawSidesBlackPoorRichCrimeJudgingPrisonCommittedLawyerCleverCommitGet BetterTreatmentJailPrisonerBlack PeopleBail
Book:A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
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“Scholars, who pride themselves on speaking their minds, often engage in a form of self-censorship which is called "realism." To be "realistic" in dealing with a problem is to work only among the alternatives which the most powerful in society put forth. It is as if we are all confined to a, b, c, or d in the multiple choice test, when we know there is another possible answer. American society, although it has more freedom of expression than most societies in the world, thus sets limits beyond which respectable people are not supposed to think or speak.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWorldMindSelfProblemFormChoicesSpeakAnswersPowerfulExpressionPrideLimitsTestsAlternativesMost PowerfulRealisticCensorshipScholarRealismMultipleConfinedRespectableFreedom Of ExpressionAmerican SocietyMultiple ChoiceSelf Censorship
Book:The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy
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“The white population could not possibly be unaffected by those events - some whites more stubborn in their defense of segregation, but others beginning to think in different ways. And the black population was transformed, having risen up in mass action for the first time, feeling its power, knowing now that if the old order could be shaken it could be toppled.”

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Author:Howard Zinn
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“If you work through the existing structures you are going to be corrupted. By working through political system that poisons the atmosphere, even the progressive organizations, you can see it even nowadays in the US, where people on the "Left" are all caught in the electoral campaign and get into fierce arguments about should we support this third party candidate or that third party candidate. This is a sort of little piece of evidence that suggests that when you get into working through electoral politics you begin to corrupt your ideals.”

PeopleIfsShouldLittlesPoliticalLeftPartySupportPiecesEvidenceIdealsArgumentOrganizationThirdsStructureCaughtCampaignsAtmosphereCandidatesPoisonProgressiveFiercePolitical SystemsThird Parties
Author:Howard Zinn
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“Sometimes the difference between two candidates is an important one in the immediate sense, and then I believe trying to get somebody into office, who is a little better, who is less dangerous, is understandable. But never forgetting that no matter who gets into office, the crucial question is not who is in office, but what kind of social movement do you have. Because if you have a powerful social movement, it doesn't matter who is in office.”

IfsTryingBelieveKindLittlesTwoImportantSometimesMatterI BelieveSocialDifferencesForgetPowerfulDangerousMovementOfficeCandidatesNever ForgetCrucialSocial Movements
Author:Howard Zinn
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“Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.”

PeopleIfsNeedsStillsRunningEvilOpinionDemocracyRightsMediaConscienceVoteAccountsSlaveryMajorityNotionPopulationMinoritiesRequirementsPublic OpinionManipulateFlawedDemocracies HaveEvil PeopleMajority RuleMajority Vote
Author:Howard Zinn
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“If we trace origins of anarchism in the United States, then probably Henry David Thoreau is the closest you can come to an early American anarchist. You do not really encounter anarchism until after the Civil War, when you have European anarchists, especially German anarchists, coming to the United States. They actually begin to organize. The first time that anarchism has an organized force and becomes publicly known in the United States is in Chicago at the time of Haymarket Affair.”

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Author:Howard Zinn
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“I would prefer to use a very inclusive definition of the working class. I'd like to include all of those people who are, if they're not exploited by an immediate employer over them, they're exploited by the system and therefore have a cause to want to change the system. Having a very inclusive definition of the working class creates a great opportunity for organizing people.”

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Author:Howard Zinn
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“If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.”

IfsNeedsIdeasStreetsTelevisionPoliticianPressesSoldierTyrannySecureCorporateThriveDeceitOur SocietyOwnersExecutivesTyrantsControl OurselvesPatrolling
Book:Uncommon Sense: From the Writings of Howard Zinn
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“I will try not to overlook the cruelties that victims inflict on one another as they are jammed together in the boxcars of the system. I don’t want to romanticize them. But I do remember (in rough paraphrase) a statement I once read: “The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don’t listen to it, you will never know what justice is.”

IfsKnowsWantTryingTogetherRememberJusticePoorCryVictimStatementsCrueltyRoughParaphrase
Book:A People's History of the United States
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“If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive movements of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.”

PeopleIfsShouldBelieveMayTogetherPastFoundWinningI BelieveAbilityCompassionCreativeCenturyMovementPossibilityOur FutureFlashEpisodesWarfareShould IBe CreativeAnticipateFugitiveSupposingNew Possibilities
Author:Howard Zinn
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“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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“If democracy were to be given any meaning, if it were to go beyond the limits of capitalism and nationalism, this would not come, if history were any guide, from the top. It would come through citizen's movements, educating, organizing, agitating, striking, boycotting, demonstrating, threatening those in power with disruption of the stability they needed.”

IfsGivenDemocracyMovementNeededCitizensLimitsCapitalismGuidesNationalismStabilityThreateningDisruptionDemonstrating
Book:A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
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“Objectivity is impossible and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.”

IfsThinkingWayShouldHumansKindWould BeHumanitySocialCausesJusticeRaceProgressImpossibleBasesAimHuman RaceSelectionObjectivityUndesirable
Author:Howard Zinn
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“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.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayGivingShouldHumansFactsPastRememberHopeEnergyWaitingHuman BeingsCompassionKindnessHistorySacrificeWorstGreatnessVictoryFutureCapacityInfiniteCrueltyHopefulGood TimesOur FutureMarvelousHuman BehaviorHuman HistoryMy FutureSuccessionDefianceBad TimesUtopianPast Present FutureHope For The FutureBright FutureGreat InspirationalHopeful Future
Author:Howard Zinn
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“What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.”

PeopleIfsWorldGivingDifferentRememberEnergyOur LivesWorstPossibilityFutureCapacityComplexesDetermineOur FutureSpinningMy FutureDifferent DirectionsHope For The FutureSpinning Tops
Book:A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
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“Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it’s been because people acted as citizens, and not as politicians. They didn’t just moan. They worked, they acted, they organized, they rioted if necessary to bring their situation to the attention of people in power. And that’s what we have to do today.”

PeopleIfsKindHas BeensMadeTodayAttentionSituationProgressCitizensPoliticianInjusticeOrganized
Book:Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009
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“Each situation has to be evaluated separately, for all are different. In general, I believe in non-violent direct action, which involve organizing large numbers of people, whereas too often violent uprisings are the product of a small group. If enough people are organized, violence can be minimized in bringing about social change.”

PeopleIfsBelieveDifferentEnoughActionI BelieveSocialNumbersSituationViolenceGroupsProductsDirectI Believe InViolentOrganizedSocial ChangeLarge NumbersUprisingSmall GroupsNon ViolentDirect Action
Author:Howard Zinn
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“History is instructive. And what it suggests to people is that even if they do little things, if they walk on the picket line, if they join a vigil, if they write a letter to their local newspaper. Anything they do, however small, becomes part of a much, much larger sort of flow of energy. And when enough people do enough things, however small they are, then change takes place.”

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Author:Howard Zinn
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