Noam Chomsky quotes

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, and social critic. Renowned for his groundbreaking work in linguistics, he developed the theory of generative grammar and has been a prominent voice in political activism. He continues to influence both scientific and public discourse around the world. Here are 618 of his quotes:

It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.

Noam Chomsky

The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.

Noam Chomsky

The general population doesn't know what's happening, and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know.

Noam Chomsky

How it is we have so much information, but know so little?

Noam Chomsky

If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

Noam Chomsky

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

Noam Chomsky

The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself.

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

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.

Noam Chomsky

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

Noam Chomsky

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.

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

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Noam Chomsky

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.

Noam Chomsky

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

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.

Noam Chomsky

Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a "war against terrorism."

Noam Chomsky

The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.

Noam Chomsky

I don't say you're self-censoring - I'm sure you believe everything you're saying; but what I'm saying is, if you believed something different, you wouldn't be sitting where you're sitting.

Noam Chomsky

It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil. The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them.

Noam Chomsky

For those who stubbornly seek freedom around the world, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the propaganda system to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling or unwitting instruments.

Noam Chomsky

"Tough love" is just the right phrase: love for the rich and privileged, tough for everyone else.

Noam Chomsky