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Thinking Quotes by Noam Chomsky

161 Thinking quotes by Noam Chomsky

All Thinking quotes Noam Chomsky’s page

Chomsky reminds us to judge ideas by their own merit, not by a title or position. He points out that schools often filter out independent thinkers, and that student debt can trap people and limit change. He also warns that rational thinking is not the only way to understand language.

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I think this country and the world would be far better off if the US is not an outlaw state.

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I do think that Magna Carta and international law are worth paying some attention to.

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This Sarah Palin phenomenon is very curious. I think somebody watching us from Mars—they would think the country has gone insane.

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I don't think that the United States cares. They just assume that North Korea will soon have nuclear weapons.

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On intervention under the UN framework, I think that sometimes that's legitimate, in fact even helpful.

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The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they’re being objective.

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Most of what is done I think is to kept secret so the public won't know. The same is true of what…

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I don't think that experience is a very useful or convincing attribute for a sensible foreign policy. Henry Kissinger had a lot…

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Clinton, Kennedy, they all carried out mass murder, but they didn't think that that was what they were doing - nor does…

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What happened in the following years? Well, I think that among the educated classes it stayed the same. You talk about humanitarian…

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Arab public opinion does not regard Iran as a hostile entity. In fact it's so supportive of Iran that a majority would…

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If anybody thinks they should listen to me because I'm a professor at MIT, that's nonsense. You should decide whether something makes…

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One of the dangers [that Donald Trump poses, due to the augmented risk of nuclear war] is unquestionable. Of the two existential…

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As for my own views, they've of course evolved over the years. This conception of 'renouncing beliefs' is very odd, as if…

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Roughly speaking, I think it's accurate to say that a corporate elite of managers and owners governs the economy and the political…

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For us, we are all very different, our languages are very different, and our societies are very different. But if we could…

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I think that what's actually happening is the collapse of the Center - the centrist semi-coalitions, mildly social-democrat, mildly conservative, that have…

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I think that in order to achieve progress in the study of language and human cognitive faculties in general it is necessary…

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I've never seen a study, but my sense is that these are people who feel really aggrieved. These people think, "I've done…

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It's commonly assumed that the emergence of language was a key element of the great leap. We of course know very little…

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If there had been a charismatic figure in the United States who could mobilize fears, anger, racism, a sense of loss of…

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A lot of the people involved in the media are very serious, honest people, and they will tell you, and I think…

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Compare mathematics and the political sciences - it's quite striking. In mathematics, in physics, people are concerned with what you say, not…

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...a very terrifying aspect of our society, and other societies, is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people…

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In general, I think, U.S. policies remain constant, going back to the Second World War. But the capacity to implement them is…

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While the state can coerce, with some exceptions (like North Korea) it seems to me misleading to think of it as capable…

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I think there are all kinds of intrusions into private rights that make use of contemporary technology.

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Take something you really don't think about: Plastics in the ocean. I mean plastics in the ocean have an enormous ecological effect.

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I choose to live in what I think is the greatest country in the world, which is committing horrendous terrorist acts and…

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I think that has a lot of dangers, as does government surveillance, which is way too high.

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My grandchildren are on social media all the time, and they think they have friends. But it's not what I would've called…

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In general I don't think the image of the state as a divinity is very helpful.

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Democratic societies can't force people. Therefore they have to control what they think.

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I think there are real possibilities of reaching out to many of the Trump voters, those who voted for Obama believing his…

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Legalizing marijuana would make a lot of sense, I don't think there's a single case of marijuana overdose on record and tens…

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They are involve in producing products and there are different kinds of people running them, but the principle is the same. A…

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I think individuals have a right to privacy, but that ought to include the right to prevent private institutions from monitoring what…

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Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under…

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So Marxism, Freudianism: any one of these things I think is an irrational cult. They're theology, so they're whatever you think of…

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Nothing can justify crimes such as those of September 11, but we can think of the United States as an innocent victim…

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More by Noam Chomsky

The costs of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now estimated to run as high as $4.4 trillion - a major victory…

If you believe in democracy, why shouldn't you know what the government is doing?

It’s a shameful moment for U.S. media when it insists on being subservient to the grotesque propaganda agencies of a violent, aggressive state.

There are questions as to whether it should even exist. Who should corporations be responsive to, the management of a corporation? Theoretically they are…

Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to be - protect themselves. That's why you have state secret laws.…

I don't join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn't have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying…

The first thing you ought to do is verify what I present. Just because I say it doesn't make it true. So check it…

I wrote an article about the marine landing [in Haiti] right away, but barely mentioned the oil, because my article would come out two…

American society is now remarkably atomized. Political organizations have collapsed. In fact, it seems like even bowling leagues are collapsing. The left has a…

Discovery is the ability to be puzzled by simple things. Noam Chomsky

There's an interesting book about that called The Third Reich and the Ivory Tower, written by Stephen H. Norwood. It has a long discussion…

This is class war on an international scale, and power is in the hands of those who control the international economic system.

There are big, extremely irrational parts of the society, and they have now been mobilized politically by the Republican establishment, hoping that these people…

There's plenty to criticize about the mass media, but they are the source of regular information about a wide range of topics. You can't…

The 50,000 Korean mercenaries we had in Vietnam were professional killers and just massacred people outright. And the American army did plenty of that…