from
You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
by Howard Zinn

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. If we see only the worst, it
destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times & places—
and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives
us the energy to act, & at least the possibility of sending this spinning
top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small
a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. 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.