Howard Zinn Quotes

If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people's lives are better, you know it's hard, and some people think it's boring.

Real change never occurs from the top on down, [but] always from the bottom on up.

When real substantive change happens it's the people who watch your show, they're the ones that make it happen. It's people whose names are not highlighted in history books. They're the ones that stand up in their place and time to make change.

The people are learning that you cannot leave decisions only to leaders. Local groups have to create the political will for change, rather than waiting for others to do things for them. That is where positive, and sustainable, change begins.

The electoral system is not where change starts - it usually starts in communities and from the bottom up - but it is where change can be stopped.

Every important change in our society, for the good, at least, has taken place because of popular pressure-pressure from below, from the great mass of people.

It's the next phase of authorship of this country's energy future. It's gonna come from the people. It's not gonna be deus ex machina or Obama ex machina, or science ex machina. It's gonna be the people. It's not going to be a wind energy company that comes in and saves the day. It's going to be the people who figure this out.

Change happens from the bottom up - all of us as individuals deciding that we will and we do have an impact.

Real change occurs from the bottom up; it occurs person to person, and it almost always occurs in small groups and locales and then bubbles up and aggregates to larger vectors of change.

Governments do not have the answers - indeed, quite the reversal. A lot of times, they not only do not have the answers, but they themselves are the problem. If we are committed to helping our world's children, then we must begin to create solutions from the bottom up.

Turmoil is everywhere, and the whole world is waiting for solutions to come from the top down. That's not how it works - community change from the bottom up makes a real difference.

Social change comes through people.

Do you have the vision to help empower and channel the energy at the grassroots level?This is not about one person; this is about millions of people all working together to protect and advance the interests of working Americans.

change starts at the bottom. I think we're disempowered by the idea that it starts at the top, when really change is like a tree. It does start at the bottom.

People power must be combined with good governance to bring about real, deep and lasting change. This combination can achieve almost everything from eliminating corruption to ending malnutrition and illiteracy.

The corporate-powered parties are not gonna do it for us, not the greater or the lesser evil. We have to do it for ourselves. And the minute we stand up and stand together, we are unstoppable.

I think for real change to happen, it's going to have to come from the kids, the community, the teachers, the parents.

The task is to transform society; only the people can do that - not heroes, not celebrities, not stars.

Ordinary people can bring about change.

There are powerful forces undermining progress in Africa. But one must never underestimate the power of the people to bring about change.

Only an organized and conscious people can bring about a different kind of society.

Any realistic vision of change must be based on the notion of empowerment of people.

The revolution cannot be funded. It's not the imagination of trusts and foundations that's going to bring real change.

My own view - and I'm very open to hearing other perspectives - is that this movement-building needs to begin at home, in local communities. It isn't about trying to launch a brand new national party overnight. It's about people in communities coming together across lines of difference, bringing with them their movements, their families, and coming together and saying, "How can we together build a movement of movements here at home? What would that look like? What do we want to do right here in our communities?"

The people are the only ones capable of transforming society.