Skip to content

Mean Quotes by Howard Zinn

16 Mean quotes by Howard Zinn

All Mean quotes Howard Zinn’s page

When Zinn turns his historian’s eye toward meanness, he pulls back the curtain on how power can warp kindness. These sixteen snippets show the tension between moral duty and the harsh realities of social structures, giving you a concise look at his critical take on human behavior.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

The fact that war belongs to the past, does not mean it has to be part of the future.

Image

When I say history is a matter of life and death, I mean this: If you really don't know history, you are…

Image

There is a hard core of people in the United States who will not be moved, whatever facts you present, from their…

Image

Democracy depends on citizens being informed, and since our media, especially television (which is the most important source of news for most…

Image

There is one central characteristic of anarchism on the matter of means, and that central principle is a principle of direct action…

Image

I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be…

Image

Any humane and reasonable person must conclude that if the ends, however desireable, are uncertain and the means are horrible and certain,…

Image

We cannot create blueprint for future society, but it is good to think about that. It is good to have in mind…

Image

War is by definition the indiscriminate killing of huge numbers of people for ends that are uncertain. Think about means and ends,…

Image

We need to organize ourselves and protest against existing order - against war, against economic and sexual exploitation, against racism, etc. But…

Image

The idea of direct action against the evil that you want to overcome is a kind of common denominator for anarchist ideas…

Image

Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral. In a world already moving in certain directions, where wealth and power are already distributed…

Image

Whenever I become discouraged (which is on alternate Tuesdays, between three and four) I lift my spirits by remembering: The artists are…

Image

The problem of giving health care to everybody cannot be solved so long as we're spending huge sums of money for war.…

Image

If we have learned anything in the past ten years, it is that these lovely things about America were never lovely. We…

Image

Human beings, whatever their backgrounds, are more open than we think, that their behavior cannot be confidently predicted from their past, that…

Image

Other authors on Mean

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…

Image

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

Image

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

Image

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…

Image

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…

Image

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,…

Image

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

Image

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…

Image

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

Image

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

Image

“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,…

Image

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

Image

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

Image

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

Image

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

Image