Howard Zinn Quotes

War justifies everything.

I'm not a pacifist by any measure, but I'm also fully aware that the reasons I might go to war could be very dubious.

War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.

What is more immoral than war?

As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy.

Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil.

Yes, war is hell. It is awful. It involves human beings killing other human beings, sometimes innocent civilians. That is why we despise war.

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.

When you start off with them being the bad guys and you being the good guys, once you've made that one decision, you don't have to think anymore, if you're in the military. From that point on, anything goes. From that point on, you're capable of anything, even atrocities. Because you've made a decision a long time ago that you're on the right side. You don't keep questioning, questioning, questioning

Tragedies ensure in wars. And we’ve seen it in every war. That’s why those who have known war hate it the most.

War not only teaches what man can be, but it teaches also what he must not be.

One should refer to things by their accurate designation. What is happening right now in Vietnam is a form of torture. That is why the bombings are an infamy. Of such there are many in modern history. They are often linked by name: Guernica, Oradour, Babij Jar, Katyn, Lidice, Sharpeville and Treblinka. Now there is another name to add to the row: Hanoi, the Christmas of 1972.

I know in war good people can feel obliged for good reasons to do things they would normally object to and recoil from.

I think 'American Sniper' is anti-war. It demonstrates the agony of the decision-making that goes on.

Really a bad guy is more interesting, dramatically, than the good guy.

Tofu is the root of all evil, and there's only one thing that can change a man's mind, and that's a modified Uzi with an extra-long clip.

If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful.

No soldier ever really survives a war.

In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.

We were king’s men, knights, and heroes . . . but some knights are dark and full of terror, my lady. War makes monsters of us all.” “Are you saying you are monsters?” “I am saying we are human. You are not the only one with wounds, Lady Brienne

Genocide is not war! It is more dangerous than war!

War is like a monster," he says, almost to himself. "War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows." He's looking at me now. "And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.

Another of the hard things about being in a war, grandchildren, is that although there are times of quiet when the fighting has stopped, you know you will soon be fighting again. Those quiet times give you the chance to think about what has happened. Some of it you would rather not think about, as you remember the pain and the sorrow. You also have time to worry about what will happen when you go into battle again.

There is no such thing as an "atrocity" in warfare that is greater than the atrocity of warfare itself.