Law Quotes by Howard Zinn

17 Law quotes by Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn’s seventeen statements on law echo his commitment to the people’s voice and historical critique. The excerpts reveal how he viewed legal systems as arenas for social change and accountability.

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“To hell with your courts, I know what justice is.”

Howard Zinn

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Right is not only to act within the law. It's to also act according to the conscience.

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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Before God and high heaven, is there a law for one man which is not a law for every other man?

Howard Zinn

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It's a strange thing, we think that law brings order. Law doesn't. How do we know that law does not bring order?…

Howard Zinn

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When in all the nations of the world the rule of law is the darling of the leaders and the plague of…

Howard Zinn

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But by this time I was acutely conscious of the gap between law and justice. I knew that the letter of the…

Howard Zinn

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Control in modern times requires more than force, more than law. It requires that a population dangerously concentrated in cities and factories,…

Howard Zinn

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The rule of law does not do away with the unequal distribution of wealth and power, but reinforces that inequality with the…

Howard Zinn

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Now I have been studying very closely what happens every day in the courts in Boston, Massachusetts. You would be astounded--maybe you…

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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Throughout American history, the political leaders have always exhorted the American people to be nice and quiet and leave things to them.…

Howard Zinn

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The First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the United States Constitution were being violated in Albany again and again - freedom…

Howard Zinn

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The function of traditional history is to create a citizenry that looks to the top - the president, Congress, the Supreme Court…

Howard Zinn

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Control in modern times requires more than force, more than law. It requires that a population dangerously concentrated in cities and factorites,…

Howard Zinn

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It had long been true, and prisoners knew this better than anyone, that the poorer you were the more likely you were…

Howard Zinn

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The Constitution. . . illustrates the complexity of the American system: that it serves the interests of a wealthy elite, but also…

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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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…

Howard Zinn

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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…

Howard Zinn

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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,…

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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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…

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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“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,…

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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

Howard Zinn

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