Howard Zinn Quotes

Our purpose now is to reclaim democracy itself. We are here to affirm that when Americans stand up and speak their minds and say America can do better, that is not a challenge to patriotism; it is the heart and soul of patriotism.

There must be engagement: there must be protest.

Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it’s been because people acted as citizens, and not as politicians. They didn’t just moan. They worked, they acted, they organized, they rioted if necessary to bring their situation to the attention of people in power. And that’s what we have to do today.

As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved - it's the citizen who changes things.

I am one who believes in the power of the people. I am inspired when I see people hit the streets, who challenge their elected officials, and are willing to stand up and fight. I encourage it.

Politicians move when the public requires them to move.

We think there's nothing like sunlight to mobilize and energize citizens to demand change of their elected officials.

I am raising my voice as a citizen of the country. I don?t want to enter politics.

Democracy depends on people speaking out, and in times of great crisis, on people creating a commotion.

It is not enough to profess faith in the democratic process; we must do something about it.

You can holler, protest, march, picket and demonstrate, but somebody must be able to sit in on the strategy conferences and plot a course. There must be strategies, the researchers, the professionals to carry out the program. That's our role.

The highest form of patriotism is dissent.

Being politically active is "more about doing things, not just standing for some platform or being involved in some political party."

I love the protests. And if you think about it, what better way to send a message to Wall Street than by sitting in a pup tent banging on a drum.

What is this much repeated phrase 'active citizen' supposed to mean? The active citizens are the ones who took the Bastille.

You will not be able to stay home, brother./You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out./You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,/Skip out for beer during commercials,/Because the revolution will not be televised.

Civil disobedience is not something outside the realm of democracy. Democracy requires civil disobedience. Without civil disobedience democracy does not exist.

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

That force - which the system tried to laugh at - when it finally broke through and the movement was recognized, the media said they were "just a bunch of spoiled kids, dope smokers [who] don't know what the hell they want." To demean it as something laughable - but that didn't work for very long. It's still an ongoing struggle; they're trying to find out how to fight. It's very exciting times.

Like all of you I'm angry. I'm angry at what's happening to our nation. Citizens, it's time to take our country back.

It is not rebellion itself which is noble but the demands it makes upon us.

We shall strike. We shall organize boycotts. We shall demonstrate and have political campaigns. We shall pursue the revolution we have proposed. We are sons and daughters of the farm workers' revolution, a revolution of the poor seeking bread and justice.

From Gandhi to Mandela, from the American patriot to the Polish shipbuilders, the makers of revolutions have not come from the top.

You do not keep American democracy in suspense. Because, look, too many people have marched and protested and fought and died for this democracy.

There is nothing but nonviolence to fall back upon for retaining our freedom, even as we had to do for gaining it.