Howard Zinn Quotes

When millions of people stand up and fight...they win.

Democracy comes alive not when government does anything, because government cannot be depended on to rectify serious injustices. It comes alive when people organize and do something about it.

Collective action is a means of power, a means by which individuals can more fully realize their individual values.

True resistance begins with people confronting pain... and wanting to do something to change it.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

Solidarity is an attitude of resistance, I suppose, or it should be.

Community organizing is all about building grassroots support. It's about identifying the people around you with whom you can create a common, passionate cause. And it's about ignoring the conventional wisdom of company politics and instead playing the game by very different rules.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

People don't realize they have the power. People don't realize that if they come together, there are more of them than those who occupy the seat that I'm in right now.

The first step in community organization is community disorganization.

There is no sound more powerful than the marching feet of a determined people.

I laid my hand on top of theirs, and all I could think was, Is this how revolutions begin? Not with a proclamation or a riot, but with a few people in a room somewhere with their hands clasped and a purpose.

Sometimes things need to get really bad before they can ever get better. Really bad can become untenable if enough people get sick of it. That was a big thing about why I ended up taking part in that rally [against police brutality] and ended up voicing my opinion and declaring what side I was standing on.

it is immoral for powerless people to accept this powerlessness. They may not succeed in getting power but they can fight for it, and if enough fight for it, it makes it very difficult for the people with the big sticks.

The power of the people is much stronger than the people in power.

Every great movement in the world starts with a tiny group of people who simply refuse to accept a situation.

Don't mourn, Organise

When we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress.

Individual struggles merge into larger social movements.

Leftism should be about the people. That's how it began.

There is no power above people power.

A movement is only composed of people moving. To feel its warmth and motion around us is the end as well as the means.

Do something that makes a difference - because, by God, there's a lot to make you angry.

The great thing about social movements is everybody gets to be a part of them.

Who can protest alone? Who dares rise up? It is not easy. One is all alone, and evermore shall be so.