Quotes by Howard Zinn
Civil disobedience is not something outside the realm of democracy. Democracy requires civil disobedience. Without civil disobedience democracy does not exist.
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.
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.
Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.
You can't be neutral on a moving train.
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
They have the guns, we have the poets. Therefore, we will win.
Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act.
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.
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.
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
History is important. If you don't know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it.
But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is... to tell the truth.
How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?
Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.
If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates.
In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli.
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.