We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“Imagine the American people united for the first time in a movement for fundamental change. Imagine society’s power taken away from the… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
Though the Americans can be fooled, as they have been, and they can be propagandized, as they have been... But, as Lincoln… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
The awful scenes of death and suffering we were witnessing on our television screens have been going on in other parts of… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“Carl Degler says (Out of Our Past): “No new social class came to power through the door of the American revolution. The… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
George Orwell said, "Whoever controls the past controls the future," by which he meant that history is incredibly important in shaping the… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage,… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
Control in modern times requires more than force, more than law. It requires that a population dangerously concentrated in cities and factories,… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
Beyond the futility of armed force, and ultimately more important, is the fact that war in our time inevitably results in the… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“Carl Degler says (Out of Our Past): “No new social class came to power through the door of the American revolution. The… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
There is the past and its continuing horrors: violence, war, prejudices against those who are different, outrageous monopolization of the good earth's… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
Human beings, whatever their backgrounds, are more open than we think, that their behavior cannot be confidently predicted from their past, that… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“The system was psychological and physical at the same time. The slaves were taught discipline, were impressed again and again with the… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“Those tears, that anger, cast into the past, deplete our moral energy for the present. And the lines are not always clear.… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“We don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an endless succession of presents, and to live now… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
Democracy depends on people speaking out, and in times of great crisis, on people creating a commotion. — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
The inferior position of blacks, the exclusion of Indians from the new society, the establishment of supremacy for the rich and powerful… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“There were moments of racial unity. Lawrence Goodwyn found in east Texas an unusual coalition of black and white public officials: it… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
What happened in World War II was what happened in war generally, and that was whatever the initiating cause, and however clear… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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… — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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… — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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… — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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,… — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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… — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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… — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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.… — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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,… — Howard Zinn Copy Share 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,… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
