35 quotes
The term "just war" contains an internal contradiction. War is inherently unjust, and the great challenge of our time is how to deal with evil, tyranny, and oppression without killing huge numbers of people.
Terrorism and War (2002)
The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
It is the great challenge of our time: How to achieve justice, with struggle, but without war.
It is His Majesty's heart's desire to see the swift termination of the war.
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable.
Terror Over Tripoli (1993)
Americans have been taught that their nation is civilized and humane. But, too often, U.S. actions have been uncivilized and inhumane.
I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.
A People's History of the United States (1980)
Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.
The Horatio Alger stories of "rags to riches" were true for a few men, but mostly a myth, and a useful myth for control.
A People's History of the United States (1980)
And the black population was transformed, having risen up in mass action for the first time, feeling its power, knowing now that if the old order could be shaken it could be toppled.
You Can't Be Neutral on A Moving Train (1994)
I am not an absolute pacifist, because I can't rule out the possibility that under some, carefully defined circumstances, some degree of violence may be justified, if it is focused directly at a great evil.
To put it briefly: the evidence is quite overwhelming on this matter. The Japanese had sent an envoy (Ambassador Sato) to Moscow (still officially a neutral) to work out a negotiated surrender.
While some multimillionaires started in poverty, most did not.
A People's History of the United States (1980)
One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. Patriotism becomes the order of the day, and those who question the war are seen as traitors, to be silenced and imprisoned.
Howard Zinn on War (2000)
If those in charge of our society — politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television — can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power.
Declarations of Independence: Cross-examining American Ideology (1990)
The white population could not possibly be unaffected by those events — some whites more stubborn in their defense of segregation, but others beginning to think in different ways.
You Can't Be Neutral on A Moving Train (1994)
Anything they do, however small, becomes part of a much, much larger sort of flow of energy. And when enough people do enough things, however small they are, then change takes place.
To white Americans of the thirties, however, blacks North and South were invisible. Only the radicals made an attempt to break the racial barriers: Socialists, Trotskyists, Communists most of all.
A People's History of the United States (1980)
Khalil Bendib, with a few ingenious strokes of his pen, gets to the heart of the issues of our time. His cartoons are in the greatest tradition of American political humor, with that combination of wit and intelligence so needed in the struggle for justice.
Mission Accomplished: Wicked Cartoons by America's Most Wanted Political Cartoonist (2007)