Noam Chomsky Quotes

Freedom without opportunity is a devil's gift.

A lot of countries break (or go against) the international law.

Haitian rice farmers are quite efficient, but they can't compete with U.S. agribusiness that relies on a huge government subsidy, thanks to Ronald Reagan's free market enthusiasms.

Isn't it interesting that eating a banana is somehow comical.

Anarchists try to identify power structures. They urge those exercising power to justify themselves. This justification does not succeed most of the time.

Part of the NAFTA legislation required studies of labor practices, and there was quite a good study that came out by a labor historian on the use of NAFTA to undermine and destroy unions.

The process of shaping opinion, attitudes, and perceptions was termed the 'engineering of consent' by one of the founders of the modern public relations industry, Edward Bernays.

Stability is when the U.K. and U.S. invade a country and impose the regime of their choice.

The free market is 'socialism' for the rich: the public pays the costs and the rich get the benefit - markets for the poor and plenty of state protection for the rich.

Death and genitals are things that frighten people, and when people are frightened, they develop means of concealment and aggression. It is common sense.

There is no body of theory or significant body of relevant information, beyond the comprehension of the layman, which makes policy immune from criticism.

Hume's paradox does hold: power is in the hands of the governed. If they refuse to accept it, you're in trouble, no matter how many guns you have.

The United States is off the international spectrum in religious extremism.

The [Ronald] Reagan administration told the business world that they were not going to enforce the labor laws.

The country was founded on the principle that primary role of government is to protect property from the majority, and so it remains.

Whatever the reasons may be, I was very much affected by events of the 1930s - the Spanish Civil War, for example, though I was barely literate.

Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth.

I have never suggested any principled difference between the natural and social sciences.

The US is a business-run huckster society, and its primary value is deceit.

The invasion of Panama, what was that? The U.S. killed, according to the Panamanians, 3,000 civilians. Maybe they're right. We don't investigate our own crimes, so nobody knows.

In fact, by universal grammar I mean just that system of principles and structures that are the prerequisites for acquisition of language, and to which every language necessarily conforms.

Blacks have no rights - in fact they were three - fifths human according to the constitution to give slave owners more voting rights. So that's African Americans.

The dangers of unexamined and unregulated monopoly power, particularly in the state executive, are hardly news. The right reaction is not passive acquiescence.

Capitalism denies the right to live. You have only the right to remain on the labour market.

The internet is something created largely by public funding.

The internet, since it is publicly created, ought to be publicly controlled.

On abortion: We are talking about ambiguous issues of a complicated kind where you have to balance conflicting interests and concerns.

I don't feel that I have anything to say beyond moral truisms.

Suppose that we believe what we are taught. . . . destroying the environment and militarizing outer space are rational policies . . . of institutional lunacy.

In any case, it is better to have some deal than no deal, but it's interesting that Obama picked the day of implementing of Iran deal to impose new sanctions on North Korea.

...if you ask me whether or not I'm an atheist, I wouldn't even answer. I would first want an explanation of what it is that I'm supposed not to believe in, and I've never seen an explanation.

Descriptive grammar is an attempt to give an account of what the current system is for either a society or an individual, whatever you happen to be studying.

Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society.

The country that consistently ranks among the highest in educational achievement is Finland. A rich country, but education is free. Germany, education is free. France, education is free.

Well before September 11, it was understood that with modern technology, the rich and powerful will lose their near monopoly of the means of violence and can expect to suffer atrocities on home soil.

What happened in the missile crisis in October 1962 has been prettified to make it look as if acts of courage and thoughtfulness abounded. The truth is that the whole episode was almost insane.

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

For 500 years, since European explorers came, Latin American countries had been separated from one another. They had very limited relations. Integration is a prerequisite for independence.

If you are giving a graduate course you don't try to impress the students with oratory, you try to challenge them, get them to question you.

In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress 'suspects.'

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

The social system is taking on a form in which finding out what you want to do is less and less of an option because your life is too structured, organised, controlled and disciplined.

The European reaction to Obama is a European delusion.

Peace is preferable to war. But it’s not an absolute value, and so we always ask, “What kind of peace?

Religion is based on the idea that God is an imbecile.

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.

As far as Marx's analysis of capitalism, there's a lot of very useful ideas in it, but he's developing an abstract model of 19th century capitalism. It's abstract and it's changed.

You have 30% of the world unemployed, a huge amount of work, that needs to be done just rebuilding the society alone.

I agree with Bill Clinton that US forces should not be sent to Haiti, but not for his reasons.

Destruction of the environment is not only rational; it's exactly what you're taught to do in college.