37 Political Noam Chomsky Quotes That Will Challenge Your Beliefs

37 quotes

Quotes from one of the most radical and interdisciplinary intellectuals working in the United States today. Sourced from Noam Chomsky's books, interviews, and essays. 

“We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”

— Noam Chomsky, davidcogswell.com

Tagged: Ideas, Good Ideas, Heroes

“Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s really an easy way: Stop participating in it.”

— Noam Chomsky, youtube.com

Tagged: Terrorism

“John Pilger: Does that right of free expression, in your view, extent to everybody? Noam Chomsky: I mean, if we don’t believe in free expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. John Pilger: Would you support the right of terrorists calling for murder of Salman Rushdie to speak…”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Freedom of Speech, Crossing The Line

“Unless the powerful are capable of learning to respect the dignity of their victims, impassable barriers will remain, and the world will be doomed to violence, cruelty, and bitter suffering.”

— Noam Chomsky, chomsky.info

Tagged: Violence, Powerful, Cruelty, Sad World, Middle East

“The invasion of Iraq was simply a war crime. Straight-out war crime.”

— Noam Chomsky, chomsky.info

Tagged: Iraq, War

“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, amazon.com

“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, youtube.com

Tagged: Ideas, Conventional Thought, Being Weird

“The major advances in speed of communication and ability to interact took place more than a century ago. The shift from sailing ships to telegraph was far more radical than that from telephone to email!”

— Noam Chomsky, theguardian.com

Tagged: Communications, Evolution, Technological Time, Understanding Time, History Of Communication

“The technical structure of the media virtually compels adherence to conventional thoughts; nothing else can be expressed between two commercials, or in seven hundred words, without the appearance of absurdity that is difficult to avoid when one is challenging familiar doctrine with no opportunity to…”

— Edward Herman, Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Media, Revolution

“There are, by one count, 20,000 more public relations agents working to doctor the news today than there are journalists writing it.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Media, Media Manipulation, Public Relations

“Interviewer: You have been very critical of the press. What would you like the press to do? Noam Chomsky: It’s very simple. I’d like the press to tell the truth about important things.”

— Noam Chomsky, chomsky.info

Tagged: Press, Media

“For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Double Standards, Power, Money, Crime, White Collar Crime

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

— Noam Chomsky, cat.org.au

Tagged: Rich People

“One might ask why tobacco is legal and marijuana not. A possible answer is suggested by the nature of the crop. Marijuana can be grown almost anywhere, with little difficulty. It might not be easily marketable by major corporations. Tobacco is quite another story.”

— Noam Chomsky, zmag.org

Tagged: Marijuana, Tobacco, Weed, Legalization of Marijuana

“The United States is like a shattered peasant society.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Opinions, Political Landscapes, Limited Debate

“What are called opinions ‘on the left’ and ‘on the right’ in the media represent only a limited spectrum of debate, which reflects the range of needs of private power—but there’s essentially nothing beyond those ‘acceptable’ positions.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Opinions, Political Landscapes, Limited Debate

“The countries that have developed economically are those which were not colonized by the West; every country that was colonized by the West is a total wreck.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Power, The West, Colonization

“Look, part of the whole technique of disempowering people is to make sure that the real agents of change fall out of history, and are never recognized in the culture for what they are. So it's necessary to distort history and make it look as if Great Men did everything - that's part of how you teach…”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Power

“In the past, the United States has sometimes, kind of sardonically, been described as a one-party state: the business party with two factions called Democrats and Republicans. That’s no longer true. It’s still a one-party state, the business party. But it only has one faction. The faction is moderat…”

— Noam Chomsky, salon.com

Tagged: The United States, US Politics

“It’s very important for institutions of concentrated power to keep people alone and isolated: that way they’re ineffective, they can’t defend themselves against indoctrination, they can’t even figure out what they think.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

“One conception of democracy has it that a democratic society is one in which the public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management of their own affairs and the means of information are open and free.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Democracy, Open Information

“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, amazon.com

Tagged: Propaganda, Thought Control

“Donald Trump is a clown — literally, he could be in the circus. He’s getting huge support from people who are angry at everything. Mostly white males. Working-class, middle-class, poor white males. And their wives and traditional families. They are furious about everything.”

— Noam Chomsky, rawstory.com

Tagged: Donald Trump, Clowns, Election 2016, Politicians As Clowns

“Hypocrites are those who apply to others the standards that they refuse to accept for themselves.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Hypocrisy

“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, amazon.com

Tagged: Democracy, Muddle Policy

“I would like to see serious and significant steps made to put an end to the use of fossil fuels, to create sustainable energy systems and to save the world – as much as we can – from likely environmental catastrophe. I would move very quickly towards de-escalating military confrontations, which are…”

— Noam Chomsky, theguardian.com

Tagged: Fossi Fuels, Sustainable Energy

“The economic consequences of these policies have been the same just about everywhere, and exactly what one would expect: a massive increase in social and economic inequality, a marked increase in severe deprivation for the poorest nations and peoples of the world, a disastrous global environment, an…”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Economic Inequality, Global Economics

“The United States has the highest level of child poverty of any industrial society, followed by the rest of the English-speaking world.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: The United States, Poverty

“Large corporations have resources to influence media and overwhelm the political process, and do so accordingly.”

— Noam Chomsky, amazon.com

Tagged: Capitalism, Big Companies, Corporatism, Media Manipulation

“You know better than I do what has to be done, the kind of problems you face. Just got ahead and do what has to be done. Don’t be intimidated, don’t be frightened, and recognize that the future can be in our hands if we’re willing to grasp it.”

— Noam Chomsky, chomsky.info

Tagged: Get To Work, Your Mission, Your Life Purpose, Your Meaning, Inspirational