Quotes from Howard Zinn

In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli.

Most wars, after all, present themselves as humanitarian endeavors to help people.

[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.

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.

The power of a bold idea uttered publicly in defiance of dominant opinion cannot be easily measured.

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.

...Surely, we must renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

There has always been, and there is now, a profound conflict of interest between the people and the government of the United States.

Group meditation according to Jon Kabat

George Orwell said, "Whoever controls the past controls the future," by which he meant that history is incredibly important in shaping the world view of the next generation of people.

If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday.

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.

The only hope lies in the fact that the American people - like people everywhere - are basically decent people with common sense.

They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution and they were invisible in the new political democracy. They were the women of early America.

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

People who have no respect for human life or for freedom or justice have taken over this beautiful country of ours. It will be up to the American people to take it back.

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

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.

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.

If you join a fight for social justice you may win or lose, but just by being part of the struggle, you win, and your life will be better for it.

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.

When the United States fought in Vietnam, it was organized modern technology versus organized human beings, and the human beings won.

The violence of our time is caused by obedience.

War in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.