Howard Zinn Quotes

The problem in this world is not civil disobedience...th e problem in this world is civil obedience.

Protest is when I say I don't like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Protest is when I say I refuse to go along with this anymore. Resistance is when I make sure everybody else stops going along too.

Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn the art of civil or voluntary obedience.

Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.

We should not forget that our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past ... while we silence the rebels of the present.

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders . . . . and millions have been killed because of this obedience . . . .

The world - and America - has been defined by people who haven't necessarily abided by the laws and the rules. Civil disobedience is part of our nation's history and has redirected our country in many instances, from the feminist movement to the Civil Rights movement and beyond.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers.

The best use of laws is to teach men to trample bad laws under their feet.

I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.

Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness. We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the comfortable path of conformity.

I believe in civil disobedience among other forms of resistance in times when it's called for.

Disobedience is the vehicle of progress.

Civil disobedience is a viable political tactic, and a non-violent tactic.

Resisting is worth doing.

One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

Civil disobedience can only lead to strength and purity.

We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience... But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.

So instead of acknowledging applause, I stand there unmoving while they take part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong.

I didn't break the rules, but I challenged the rules.

Should I abide by the rules until they're changed, or help speed the change by breaking them?

A great many of us must move from words to acts - from words of dissent to acts of disobedience.

Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.