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

— Howard Zinn

Last update Oct. 29, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world." by Howard Zinn?

Howard Zinn 69

author and historian 1922–2010

Related quotes

“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 (1922–2010) author and historian

“A small act is worth a million thoughts.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2000-09, Meet the Most Interesting Person in China, 2009

“Every small, unselfish action nudges the world into a better path. An accumulation of small acts can change the world.”

Robin Hobb book Fool's Fate

Source: Fool's Fate

“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Source: Poems

“In a population of hundreds of millions, such a small number of people is a mere drop in the bucket… but enough drops can make any bucket overflow”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnDivided

“A million million worlds that move in peace;
A million mighty laws that never cease;
And one small ant-heap, hidden by small weeds,
Rich with eggs, slaves and store of millet-seeds.
They sleep beneath the sod
And trust in God.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer

A Common Inference.
In this Our World : Poems (1898)

“What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed.”

Yukio Mishima book The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1959).
Context: What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed. You may ask what good it does us. Let's put it this way — human beings possess the weapon of knowledge in order to make life bearable. For animals such things aren't necessary. Animals don't need knowledge or anything of the sort to make life bearable. But human beings do need something, and with knowledge they can make the very intolerableness of life a weapon, though at the same time that intolerableness is not reduced in the slightest. That's all there is to it.