Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. As one of the most cited scholars, Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. Inspirational Noam Chomsky quotes will broaden your views regarding life, society, hope, media, politics, and many more.
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Most Famous Noam Chomsky Quotes
A language is not just words. It’s a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It’s all embodied in a language.
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.
Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.
All public resources go to the rich. The poor, if they can survive in the labor market, fine. Otherwise, they die. That’s economics in a nutshell.
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.
As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.
Democratic societies can’t force people. Therefore they have to control what they think.
The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control indoctrination, we might say exercised through the mass media.
Do you train for passing tests or do you train for creative inquiry?
We can, for example, be fairly confident that either there will be a world without war or there won’t be a world at least, a world inhabited by creatures other than bacteria and beetles, with some scattering of others.
Education is a system of imposed ignorance.
Everybody’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s a really easy way: stop participating in it.
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.
You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.
Every single one cabinet appointment: education, environment, labor every single one is selected to undermine any aspect of government that’s of any help to people, and that doesn’t benefit the super rich.
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants, and aliens, the more you control all the people.
Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s really an easy way: Stop participating in it.
If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post war American president would have been hanged.
For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.
Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.
How it is we have so much information, but know so little?
The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history.
Hypocrites are those who apply to others the standards that they refuse to accept for themselves.
Unlimited economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege, a fact that has not gone unnoticed among liberal economists.
I was never aware of any other option but to question everything.
Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involve a process of free creation.
If it’s wrong when they do it, it’s wrong when we do it.
In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy, and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued they may be essential to survival.
If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.
Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analog in the animal world.
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.
To some degree, it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public.
If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.
I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system.
If you quietly accept and go along no matter what your feelings are, ultimately you internalize what you’re saying, because it’s too hard to believe one thing and say another.
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.
In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued they may be essential to survival.
The only justification for repressive institutions is the material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.
It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.
States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.
It is quite possible overwhelmingly probable, one might guess that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology.
The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn’t betray it I’d be ashamed of myself.
It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.
The people who were honored in the Bible were the false prophets. It was the ones we call the prophets who were jailed and driven into the desert.
It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation?
The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.
It’s only terrorism if they do it to us. When we do much worse to them, it’s not terrorism.
As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so.
Education must provide the opportunities for self fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.
Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for.
If you would like to learn more about the life and work of Noam Chomsky, we would suggest you read Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky.
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all Noam Chomsky
Responsibility I believe accrues through privilege. People like you and me have an unbelievable amount of privilege and therefore we have a huge amount of responsibility.
The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions. Noam Chomsky
Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that’s where the light is. It has no other choice.
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum Noam Chomsky, The Common Good
States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. Noam Chomsky
Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can’t afford the time to think.
All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. Noam Chomsky
That is what I have always understood to be the essence of anarchism: the conviction that the burden of proof has to be placed on authority, and that it should be dismantled if that burden cannot be met.
If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world. Noam Chomsky
That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.
I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom. Noam Chomsky
That’s the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody’s going to be against, and everybody’s going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn’t mean anything.
That’s the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody’s going to be against, and everybody’s going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn’t mean anything. Noam Chomsky
The death penalty can be tolerated only by extreme statist reactionaries who demand a state that is so powerful that it has the right to kill.
That is what I have always understood to be the essence of anarchism: the conviction that the burden of proof has to be placed on authority, and that it should be dismantled if that burden cannot be met. Noam Chomsky
The general population doesn’t know what’s happening, and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know.
It is quite possible overwhelmingly probable, one might guess that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology Noam Chomsky
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.
Neoliberal democracy. Instead of citizens, it produces consumers. Instead of communities, it produces shopping malls. The net result is an atomized society of disengaged individuals who feel demoralized and socially powerless. Noam Chomsky
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum
Do you train for passing tests or do you train for creative inquiry? Noam Chomsky
The world is a very puzzling place. If you’re not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else’s mind.
Responsibility I believe accrues through privilege. People like you and me have an unbelievable amount of privilege and therefore we have a huge amount of responsibility. We live in free societies where we are not afraid of the police; we have extraordinary wealth available to us by global standards. If you have those things, then you have the kind of responsibility that a person does not have if he or she is slaving seventy hours a week to put food on the table; a responsibility at the very least to inform yourself about power. Beyond that, it is a question of whether you believe in moral certainties or not. Noam Chomsky
There’s a good reason why nobody studies history, it just teaches you too much.
Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that’s where the light is. It has no other choice. Noam Chomsky
Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism.
It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism. Noam Chomsky
We shouldn’t be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.
Most problems of teaching are not problems of growth but helping cultivate growth. As far as I know, and this is only from personal experience in teaching, I think about ninety percent of the problem in teaching, or maybe ninety eight percent, is just to help the students get interested. Or what it usually amounts to is to not prevent them from being interested. Typically they come in interested, and the process of education is a way of driving that defect out of their minds. But if children ‘s normal interest is maintained or even aroused, they can do all kinds of things in ways we don’t understand. Noam Chomsky
The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube, you know. It’s very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. You can’t fight the world alone. Noam Chomsky
Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech. Noam Chomsky
I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom. Noam Chomsky
Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praiseworthy, on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits in the classic formulation. Noam Chomsky
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. Noam Chomsky
It’s only terrorism if they do it to us. When we do much worse to them, it’s not terrorism. Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions. Noam Chomsky
Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like. Noam Chomsky
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. Noam Chomsky
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours. Noam Chomsky
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. Noam Chomsky, The Common Good
The death penalty can be tolerated only by extreme statist reactionaries who demand a state that is so powerful that it has the right to kill. Noam Chomsky
That’s the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody’s going to be against, and everybody’s going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn’t mean anything. Noam Chomsky
The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information. Noam Chomsky
All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. Noam Chomsky
If anybody thinks they should listen to me because I’m a professor at MIT, that’s nonsense. You should decide whether something makes sense by its content, not by the letters after the name of the person who says it. Noam Chomsky
If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world. Noam Chomsky
The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube, you know. It’s very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. You can’t fight the world alone. Noam Chomsky
The war is simply an obscenity, a depraved act by weak and miserable men, including all of us who have allowed it to go on and on with endless fury and destruction all of us who would have remained silent, had stability and order been secured. Noam Chomsky, American Power and the New Mandarins, 1969
Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation. Noam Chomsky
Personally I’m in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions in the society have to be under popular control. Now, under capitalism we can’t have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist; that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level there’s a little bargaining, a little give and take, but the line of authority is perfectly straightforward. Just as I’m opposed to political fascism, I’m opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it’s pointless to talk about democracy.
No honest journalist should be willing to describe himself or herself as embedded. To say, I’m an embedded journalist’ is to say, ‘I’m a government Propagandist. Noam Chomsky, Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World
In the American Jewish community, there is little willingness to face the fact that the Palestinian Arabs have suffered a monstrous historical injustice, whatever one may think of the competing claims. Until this is recognized, discussion of the Middle East crisis cannot even begin.
The kind of work that should be the main part of life is the kind of work you would want to do if you weren’t being paid for it. It’s work that comes out of your own internal needs, interests and concerns. Noam Chomsky
