Noam Chomsky Quotes

born 1928 United States

Avram Noam Chomsky (born 7 December 1928) is an American linguist, analytical philosopher, cognitive scientist, political analyst, human rights activist and anarcho-socialist.

United States
Academics
Activists
Environmentalists
Essayists

Also known as: Chomsky, Chomsky, Noam, Noam Chomsky's political views

Random Noam Chomsky quote

211 quotes

We should recognize that white male supremacy is a deep current in American history.

AOC & Noam Chomsky: The Way Forward + transcript (2021)

When we lament over the German conscience, we are demanding of them a display of self-hatred -- a good thing, no doubt.

The revolutionary pacifism of A.J. Muste: On the backgrounds of the Pacific War (1969)

If any of you have ever looked at your FBI file, you discover that intelligence agencies in general are extremely incompetent.

Naturally, any conqueror is going to play one group against another.

There is a noticeable general difference between the sciences and mathematics on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other.

Unlike the German Kaiser, our soul is not torn.

The revolutionary pacifism of A.J. Muste: On the backgrounds of the Pacific War (1969)

What’s so exciting about at last visiting Venezuela is that I can see how a better world is being created.

Spectator sports make people more passive, because you're not doing them—you're watching somebody doing them.

As soon as one identifies, challenges and overcomes illegitimate power, he or she is an anarchist. Most people are anarchists.

To me it seems that what is needed is a kind of denazification.

American Power and the New Mandarins (1969)

In general, the rules of stylistic reordering are very different from the grammatical transformations, which are much more deeply embedded in the grammatical system.

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965)

State terror is almost always much more extreme than retail terror, and this is no exception.

Where the state lacks means of coercion, it is important to control what people think.

Canada became the per capita largest war exporter, trying to make as much money as it could from the murder of people in Indochina.

In an important way, by doing so he degrades himself, and insults beyond measure the victims of our violence and our moral blindness.

American Power and the New Mandarins (1969)

I have never seen a level of censorship like this.

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

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

In certain intellectual circles in France, the very basis for discussion—a minimal respect for facts and logic—has been virtually abandoned.

The U.S. has always insisted on its right to use force, whatever international law requires, and whatever international institutions decide.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Noam Chomsky (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.