Patriotism Quotes by Howard Zinn

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

— Howard Zinn

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

— Howard Zinn

[W]e're taught that if one person kills another person, that is murder; but if a government kills a hundred thousand persons, that…

— Howard Zinn

If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism?

— Howard Zinn

One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. Patriotism becomes the order of the day, and those who question…

— Howard Zinn

Should we not begin to redefine patriotism? We need to expand it beyond that narrow nationalism which has caused so much death…

— Howard Zinn

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

— Howard Zinn

...Surely, we must renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that…

— Howard Zinn

(Nationalism is) a set of beliefs taught to each generation in which the Motherland or the Fatherland is an object of veneration…

— Howard Zinn

Nations are not communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals the…

— Howard Zinn

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

— Howard Zinn

Surely, if it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish," it is their right to criticize, even severely, policies…

— Howard Zinn

“Today everybody is talking about the fact that we live in one world; because of globalization, we are all part of the…

— Howard Zinn

“What struck me as I began to study history was how nationalist fervor--inculcated from childhood on by pledges of allegiance, national anthems,…

— Howard Zinn

Is not nationalism - that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder - one of…

— Howard Zinn

I did not feel very patriotic. I did not feel proud of our country, seeing that we were bombing peasant villages, that…

— Howard Zinn

If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love…

— Howard Zinn

“All those histories of this country centered on the Founding Fathers and the Presidents weigh oppressively on the capacity of the ordinary…

— Howard Zinn

“History is the memory of states,' wrote Henry Kissinger in his first book, A World Restored , in which he proceeded to…

— Howard Zinn

“The pretense continued over the generations, helped by all-embracing symbols, physical or verbal: the flag, patriotism, democracy, national interest, national defense, national…

— Howard Zinn