Howard Zinn: Trending quotes

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Howard Zinn: 138 quotes4 likes

“Americans have been taught that their nation is civilized and humane. But, too often, U. S. actions have been uncivilized and inhumane.”

Howard Zinn

As quoted in Quotations on Terrorism (2004) by Harry Kawilarang, p. 61

“One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.”

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn on War (2000), Ch. 21: Just and Unjust War http://co.quaker.org/Writings/JustAndUnjustWar.htm Context: 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.

“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.”

Howard Zinn

You Can't Be Neutral on A Moving Train (1994) Ch. 4: "My Name is Freedom": Albany, Georgia
Context: 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.

“To put it briefly: the evidence is quite overwhelming on this matter. The Japanese had sent an envoy (Ambassador Sato) to Moscow (still officially a neutral) to work out a negotiated surrender.”

Howard Zinn

Regarding the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in a ZNet forum reply (13 July 1999) http://forum.zmag.org/~ZNetCmt/read?3235,7 Context: To put it briefly: the evidence is quite overwhelming on this matter. The Japanese had sent an envoy (Ambassador Sato) to Moscow (still officially a neutral) to work out a negotiated surrender. An instruction from Foreign Minister Togo came in a telegram (intercepted by American intelligence, which had broken the Japanese code early in the war), saying: "Unconditional surrender is the only obstacle to peace... It is His Majesty's heart's desire to see the swift termination of the war." The Japanese had one condition for surrender which the U. S. refused to meet — recognizing the sanctity of the Emperor. It seemed the U. S. was determined to drop the bomb before the Japanese could surrender — for a variety of reasons, none of them humanitarian. After the war, the official report of the U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey, based on hundreds of interviews with Japanese decision-makers right after the war, concluded that the war would have ended in a few months by a Japanese surrender "even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."

“These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country.”

Howard Zinn book A People's History of the United States

Ch. 24 http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncomrev24.html A People's History of the United States (1980) Context: One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another: small property owners against the propertyless, black against white, native-born against foreign-born, intellectuals and professionals against the uneducated and the unskilled. These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country.

“Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.”

Howard Zinn

“Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.”

Howard Zinn

“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.”

Howard Zinn

“But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is… to tell the truth.”

Howard Zinn

Source: Marx in Soho: A Play on History

“I wonder how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own.”

Howard Zinn

“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”

Howard Zinn

“The memory of oppressed people is one thing that cannot be taken away, and for such people, with such memories, revolt is always an inch below the surface.”

Howard Zinn book A People's History of the United States

Source: A People's History of the United States

“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.”

Howard Zinn

Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991): "American Ideology" http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/AmericanIdeology_DI.html Context: 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.

“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.”

Howard Zinn book A People's History of the United States

Source: A People's History of the United States

“We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children. War is terrorism, magnified a hundred times.”

Howard Zinn

"The Old Way of Thinking" http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Old_Way_Thinking.html, in The Progressive (November 2001)

“What matters most is not who is sitting in the White House, but "who is sitting in" -- and who is marching outside the White House, pushing for change.”

Howard Zinn

“Any humane and reasonable person must conclude that if the ends, however desireable, are uncertain and the means are horrible and certain, these means must not be employed.”

Howard Zinn

Source: Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice

“In the long run, the oppressor is also a victim. In the short run (and so far, human history has consisted only of short runs), the victims, themselves desperate and tainted with the culture that oppresses them, turn on other victims.”