Howard Zinn Quotes

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

I don't think we can sit on the fence anymore. We have to make up our minds. And if one wants to choose the path of darkness, then so be it, but be conscious of what it is you're doing.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

The act of willing this or that, of choosing among various courses of conduct, is central in the realm of ethics.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

It seems that if you put people on paper and move them through time, you cannot help but talk about ethics, because the ethical realm exists nowhere if not here: in the consequences of human actions as they unfold in time, and the multiple interpretive possibility of those actions.

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be either good or evil.

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong.

doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right

Art and politics must move closer together. Reflection and action must be equally valid in good men if history is not to take one course and art another.

We have reached a crises in the history of this country when no man, however humble his rank or limited his influence, has a right to stand neutral..

Every generation will be challenged morally once in their life about its government, and they will have to say where they stand.

I never really saw myself as an activist but at some point the activist is the only moral position to take.

...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

Each decision - to kill, to sign a petition, to write a letter, to make a speech, to attack, to lie, to surrender - was made at some point in somebody's day.

As Frederick Douglas, the famous abolitionist, said: "power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will." You need the truth, and you also need a demand, and you need to bring that demand into the realm of electoral politics. If you don't do that, it's very hard to get such an entrenched machine to move.

Every act has both good and evil results. The best we can do is lean to the light.

With a great moral issue involved, neutrality does not serve righteousness; for to be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong.

In order to protect himself from force, man was obliged to submit to justice. Justice or force: he was compelled to choose between the two masters, so little are we made to be independent.

If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.

You're either an activist or an inactivist. I want to stop this.

Here in St. Cloud’s,” Dr. Larch wrote, “ I have been given the choice of playing God or leaving practically everything up to chance. It is my experience that practically everything is left up to chance much of the time; men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God – we should seize those moments. There won’t be may

But they who are unconcerned about the consequences of their actions are not therefore unconcerned about their actions.

Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.