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Politics Quotes by Howard Zinn

63 Politics quotes by Howard Zinn

All Politics quotes Howard Zinn’s page

We have never had a "free market"; government has always intervened in the economy, shaping outcomes. He says that when justice is finally achieved, it rarely comes from national legislation but from citizen action. He urges people to organize, strike, and question war motives, reminding us that Congress is not a reliable guardian of rights.

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They didn't give their lives for their country! their lives were taken from them by their government.

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“Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil. . . .”

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When people don't understand that the government doesn't have their interests in mind, they're more susceptible to go to war.

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“How can you have a war on terrorism while war itself is terrorism!”

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“party politics and religion now substituting for class conflict.”

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Politics is pointless if it does nothing to enhance the beauty of our lives.

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It was an old lesson learned by governments: that war solves problems of control.

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I have no regrets about my political activity, only that I sometimes got carried away with it and didn't find the right…

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The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people…

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If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas,…

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Charles Beard warned us that governments-inc luding the government of the United States-are not neutral, that they represent the dominant economic interests,…

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I suggest that if you know history, then you might not be so easily fooled by the government when it tells you…

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

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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,…

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That whole idea of threats to national security is a very interesting one. The phrase is very useful for the government to…

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I think a way to behave is to think not in terms of representative government, not in terms of voting, not in…

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We've never had our injustices rectified from the top, from the president or Congress, or the Supreme Court, no matter what we…

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Memorial Day will be celebrated ... by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors…

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Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it’s been because people acted as citizens, and not…

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I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let…

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I don't think we can depend on Congress. In the American political system - we have been brought up to believe that…

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The democratic principle, enunciated in the words of the Declaration of Independence, declared that government was secondary, that the people who established…

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“The very poor could not be counted on to support the government. They were like the slaves and Indians—invisible most of the…

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“Meanwhile, the government of the United States was behaving almost exactly as Karl Marx described a capitalist state: pretending neutrality to maintain…

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“We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot…

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“In Guatemala, in 1954, a legally elected government was overthrown by an invasion force of mercenaries trained by the CIA at military…

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“How skillful to tax the middle class to pay for the relief of the poor, building resentment on top of humiliation! How…

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“As for the Cherokees, they faced a set of laws passed by Georgia: their lands were taken, their government abolished, all meetings…

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“That myth led ordinary people to believe that they had a voice in government and that government looked out for their interests.…

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“There was much talk in the American press in the early eighties about the political cautiousness of a new generation of college…

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“Clearly, there was something amiss with a political system, supposed to be democratic, in which the desires of the voters were repeatedly…

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“Another view of the Constitution was put forward early in the twentieth century by the historian Charles Beard (arousing anger and indignation,…

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“The American Anti-Slavery Society, on the other hand, said the war was “waged solely for the detestable and horrible purpose of extending…

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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…

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“The U.S. government did not seem to recognize that its punitive foreign policies, its military installations in countries all over the globe,…

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Strike is always a form of direct action. With the strike, too, you are not asking government to make things easier for…

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We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media,…

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Perhaps the most important thing I learned was about democracy, that democracy is not our government, our constitution, our legal structure. Too…

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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…

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When we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a…

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More by Howard Zinn

“A black man, Benjamin Banneker, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy, predicted accurately a solar eclipse, and was appointed to plan the new city…

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

“a good education is a synthesis of book learning and involvement in social action, because each enrich the other. The accumulation of knowledge, while…

The mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction-so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and…

Let's face a historical truth: we have never had a "free market", we have always had government intervention in the economy, and indeed that…

I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don't BELIEVE in it. It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence,…

Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. It is a corrective to the sluggishness of…

Now I have been studying very closely what happens every day in the courts in Boston, Massachusetts. You would be astounded--maybe you wouldn't, maybe…

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

“Sexual purity was to be the special virtue of a woman. It was assumed that men, as a matter of biological nature, would sin,…

“Middle-class Americans might be invited to join a new elite by attacks against the corruption of the established rich. The New Yorker Cadwallader Colden,…

If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will…

We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts…

Behind the deceptive words designed to entice people into supporting violence -- words like democracy, freedom, self-defense, national security -- there is the reality…

“George Washington had turned down the requests of blacks, seeking freedom, to fight in the Revolutionary army. So when the British military commander in…