Howard Zinn Quotes - Page 4

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• What is called “apathy” is, I believe, a feeling of helplessness on the part of the ordinary citizen, a feeling of impotence in the face of enormous power. It’s not that people are apathetic; they do care about what is going on, but don’t know what to do about it, so they do nothing, and appear to be indifferent.

  Howard Zinn

  Believe, People, Feelings

  "An Interview With Howard Zinn". Interview with Stefan Sirucek, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 30, 2010.

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• If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates.

  Howard Zinn

  People, Vote, Given

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• The strike, the boycott, the refusal to serve, the ability to paralyze the functioning of a complex social structure-these remain potent weapons against the most fearsome state or corporate power.

  Howard Zinn

  Fear, Weapons, Economy

  Howard Zinn (2013). “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress”, p.26, City Lights Books

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• 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.

  Howard Zinn

  People, Should

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• One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. Patriotism becomes the order of the day, and those who question the war are seen as traitors, to be silenced and imprisoned.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Expression, Order

  Howard Zinn (2001). “Howard Zinn on War”, p.171, Seven Stories Press

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• 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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• I came to the conclusion that war was an unacceptable way of solving whatever problems there were in the world--that there would be problems of tyranny, of injustice, of nations crossing frontiers and that injustice and tyranny should not be tolerated and should be fought and resisted, but the one thing that must not be used to solve that problem is war. Because war is inevitably the indiscriminate killing of large numbers of people. And that fact overwhelms whatever moral cause is somewhere buried in the history of that war.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Numbers, People

  Howard Zinn (2012). “Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches 1963-2009”, p.108, Haymarket Books

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• There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at critical points to create a power that governments cannot suppress.

  Howard Zinn

  Government, Together, Bold Actions

  Howard Zinn, Dean Birkenkamp, Wanda Rhudy (2016). “Uncommon Sense: From the Writings of Howard Zinn”, p.24, Routledge

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• 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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• Sometimes it's a short step from banning to burning.

  Howard Zinn

  Burning, Steps, Sometimes

  Interview with Robert Birnbaum, www.identitytheory.com. January 10, 2001.

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• The establishment, whatever rewards it gives us, will also, if necessary to maintain it's control, kill us

  Howard Zinn

  Giving, Rewards, Establishment

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• The term anarchism has become associated with two phenomena with which real anarchist don't want to associate themselves with. One is violence, and the other is disorder or chaos. The popular conception of anarchism is on the one hand bomb-throwing and terrorism, and on the other hand no rules, no regulations, no discipline, everybody does what they want, confusion, etc. That is why there is a reluctance to use the term anarchism.

  Howard Zinn

  Real, Hands, Two

  "Rebels Against Tyranny". Interview with Ziga Vodovnik, www.counterpunch.org. May 12, 2008.

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• [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.

  Howard Zinn

  Government, Taught, Murder

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• When you fight a war against a tyrant, who do you kill? You kill the victims of the tyrant.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Fighting, Tyrants

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

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• If you want to end terrorism, you have to stop being terrorists

  Howard Zinn

  Want, Terrorism, Ends

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• When [Ralph Waldo] Emerson visited Thoreau in jail and asked, 'What are you doing in there?' it was reported that Thoreau replied, 'What are you doing out there?'

  Howard Zinn

  Jail, Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.156, Routledge

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• The chief problem in historical honesty is not outright lying. It is omission or de-emphasis of important data. The definition of 'important', of course, depends on one's values.

  Howard Zinn

  Honesty, Lying, Data

  Howard Zinn (1993). “Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian”, p.30, South End Press

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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.

  Howard Zinn

  Self, Speaks Out, Catalyst For Change

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.33, Beacon Press

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• I did not know much history when I became a bombardier in the U.S. Air Force in World War II. Only after the War did I see that we, like the Nazis, had committed atrocities... Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, my own bombing missions. And when I studied history after the War, I learned from reading on my own, not from my university classes, about the history of U.S. expansion and imperialism.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Reading, Air

  "Zinn Speaks". Interview with Wajahat Ali, www.counterpunch.org. April 19, 2008.

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• Very important thing to keep in mind, that when justice comes and when injustices are remedied, they’re not remedied by the initiative of the national government or the politicians. They only respond to the power of social movements.

  Howard Zinn

  Government, Justice, Mind

  Howard Zinn (2012). “Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009”, p.293, Haymarket Books

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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

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• One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.

  Howard Zinn

  Peace, War, Expression

  Howard Zinn (2011). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.236, Seven Stories Press

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• The pretense in disputed elections is that the great conflict is between the two major parties. The reality is that there is a much bigger conflict that the two parties jointly wage against large numbers of Americans who are represented by neither party and against powerless millions around the world." (p. 65)

  Howard Zinn

  Party, Reality, Two

  Howard Zinn (2013). “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress”, p.65, City Lights Books

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• Yes, we're dreamers. We want it all. We want a peaceful world. We want an egalitarian world. We don't want war. We don't want capitalism. We want a decent society.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Peaceful, Dreamer

  Howard Zinn (2012). “Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009”, p.258, Haymarket Books

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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.

  Howard Zinn

  Believe, Winning, Past

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