Ideas Quotes by Noam Chomsky

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

— Noam Chomsky

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

— Noam Chomsky

There are some very general ideas that people can keep in mind; they're kind of truisms. It's only worth mentioning them because…

— Noam Chomsky

The idea that people should be allowed to decide something about their own fate is just anathema to European elites.

— Noam Chomsky

It's true that many say that [they] object to the idea of "human nature," but it's not clear what that is supposed…

— Noam Chomsky

Another recollection is that [ Paul Johnson] mostly kept away from ideas and dedicated activism, and concentrated on sex lives and other gossip.

— Noam Chomsky

The idea that you have to drop any thing that you might be interested in doing because you have to pass that…

— Noam Chomsky

I think we can be reasonably confident that if the American population had the slightest idea of what is being done in…

— Noam Chomsky

The U.S. - the idea that the U.S. has introduced and imposed principles of international law, that's hardly even a joke. The…

— Noam Chomsky

The old-fashioned idea is that responsibility falls upon those who borrow and lend. Money was not borrowed by campesinos, assembly plant workers,…

— Noam Chomsky

The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube, you know.…

— Noam Chomsky

We could not bring democracy and freedom to Vietnam at a cost acceptable to ourselves. The idea that that was what we…

— Noam Chomsky

People don't talk to each other. You're alone with your television set or internet. But you can't have a functioning democracy without…

— Noam Chomsky

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…

— Noam Chomsky

Anarcho-capitalism, in my opinion, is a doctrinal system which, if ever implemented, would lead to forms of tyranny and oppression that have…

— Noam Chomsky

I can understand the idea that there is a conspiracy. In fact, in much of the world there is a sense of…

— Noam Chomsky

We're supposed to believe that oil had nothing to do with it, that if Iraq were exporting pickles or jelly and the…

— Noam Chomsky

The Russians were doing a lot of rotten things, you can point to them. But the idea that if you consider what…

— Noam Chomsky

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn't…

— Noam Chomsky

Karl Marx said, “The task is not just to understand the world but to change it.” A variant to keep in mind…

— Noam Chomsky

There is no evolutionary pressure to create minds capable of forming sciences; it just happened. Evolutionary pressure has not led to higher…

— Noam Chomsky

If by 'intellectual' you mean people who are a special class who are in the business of imposing thoughts and forming ideas…

— Noam Chomsky

It was declared by Congress that marijuana makes people insane. But . . . lawyers, defense lawyers, got the idea, OK, I…

— Noam Chomsky

The basic idea which runs right through modern history and modern liberalism is that the public has got to be marginalized. The…

— Noam Chomsky

The very idea that there should be a certain class of people who give orders by virtue of their ownership of wealth…

— Noam Chomsky

More generally, independent farmers had to be trained to become docile workers in the expanding industrial system. It was necessary to drive…

— Noam Chomsky

The idea that Hezbollah is acting as an agent of Iran is very dubious. It's not accepted by specialists on Iran or…

— Noam Chomsky

What can one say about a country where a museum of science in a great city can feature an exhibit in which…

— Noam Chomsky

As long as people are marginalized and distracted [they] have no way to organize or articulate their sentiments, or even know that…

— Noam Chomsky

Western intellectuals, and also Third World intellectuals, were attracted to the Bolshevik counter-revolution because Leninism is, after all, a doctrine which says…

— Noam Chomsky

Policies are designed to undermine working class organization and the reason is not only the unions fight for workers' rights, but they…

— Noam Chomsky

I mean, it’s true, nobody talks about them, but when you bring it up, the idea that you have to rent yourself…

— Noam Chomsky

Anarchism, in my view, is an expression of the idea that the burden of proof is always on those who argue that…

— Noam Chomsky

I did not say that language as a completed system emerged in an individual in an instant. But I cannot think of…

— Noam Chomsky

A lot of association on the internet is highly constructive. There are people interacting, interchanging ideas, making plans, coordinating activities; take any…

— Noam Chomsky

George Kennan is another extreme case. He was the American consul in Berlin until the war between Germany and the United States…

— Noam Chomsky

On humanitarian intervention in general, I guess my view is not unlike the view that was attributed to Gandhi, accurately or not,…

— Noam Chomsky

Orwell says straight, look, in England what comes out in a free country is not very different from this totalitarian monster that…

— Noam Chomsky