Noam Chomsky: Trending quotes (page 9)

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

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

“Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.”

“State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day.”

“Passivity may be the easy course, but it is hardly the honorable one.”

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

“As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise human science is at a loss.”

“The new crimes that the US and Israel were committing in Gaza as 2009 opened do not fit easily into any standard category—except for the category of familiarity.”

“In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society. In America, the professor talks to the mechanic. They are in the same category.”

“Discovery is the ability to be puzzled by simple things.”

“You don't get to be a respected intellectual by uttering truisms in monosyllables.”

“… 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.”

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

“Unfortunately, you can't vote the rascals out, because you never voted them in, in the first place.”

“People tend to rally around power.”

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

“Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a "war against terrorism."”

“Turning finally to the question raised, to be precise, it appears that [Hillary] Clinton received a slight majority of the vote. The apparent decisive victory [of Donald Trump] has to do with curious features of American politics: among other factors, the Electoral College residue of the founding of the country as an alliance of separate states; the winner-take-all system in each state; the arrangement of congressional districts (sometimes by gerrymandering) to provide greater weight to rural votes (in past elections, and probably this one too, Democrats have had a comfortable margin of victory in the popular vote for the House, but hold a minority of seats); the very high rate of abstention (usually close to half in presidential elections, this one included). Of some significance for the future is the fact that in the age 18-25 range, Clinton won handily, and Sanders had an even higher level of support. How much this matters depends on what kind of future humanity will face.”

“Roughly speaking, states are violent to the extent that they have the power to act in the interests of those with domestic power…”