Latest Quotes

“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, Violence and Dignity: Reflections on the Middle East

“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, Corporate business models are hurting American universities

“It’s hard to recognize that life isn’t a holding action, but a process. It’s hard to learn that we don’t leave the best parts of ourselves behind, back in the dugout or the office. We own what we learned back there. The experiences and the growth are grafted onto our lives. And when we exit, we can…”

— Ellen Goodman, Ellen Goodman's last column: looking backward, looking forward

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

— Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Bill Maher

“There’s a trick to the ‘graceful exit.’ It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over — and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit l…”

— Ellen Goodman, Ellen Goodman's last column: looking backward, looking forward

“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, Chomsky: The U.S. behaves nothing like a democracy

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

— Noam Chomsky, Powers and Prospects

“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, Deterring Democracy

“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, Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent

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

— Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky

“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, Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky

“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, Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky

“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, Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky

“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, Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky

“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, Noam Chomsky slams Trump: ‘He’s a clown — literally, he could be in the circus’

“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, Noam Chomsky on Donald Trump: 'Almost a death knell for the human species'

“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, Media Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda (Open Media Series)

“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, Media Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda (Open Media Series)

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

— Noam Chomsky, Media Control

“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, Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order