1,450 Quotes by Noam Chomsky

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

The ‘free-floating intellectual’ may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.

Anything that you are achieving that undermines and threatens systems of power will meet with oppression. Systems of power don’t say ‘thank you.’ What’s important is not to focus all your efforts on the oppression, but to continue the constructive work.

If you’re teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.

There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information – the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.

There are plenty of things that are unknown, but are assumed reasonably to exist, even in the most basic sciences. Maybe 90 percent of the mass-energy in the universe is called “dark,” because nobody knows what it is.

People are dangerous. If they’re able to involve themselves in issues that matter, they may change the distribution of power, to the detriment of those who are rich and privileged.

Just as I’m opposed to political fascism, I’m opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it’s pointless to talk about democracy.

If anybody thinks they should listen to me because I’m a professor at MIT, that’s nonsense. You should decide whether something makes sense by its content, not by the letters after the name of the person who says it.