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Noam Chomsky Quotes

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Famous Noam Chomsky Quotes

“We do not for example say that the person has a perfect knowledge of some language L similar to English but still different from it. What we say is that the child or foreigner has a 'partial knowledge of English' or is 'on his or her way' towards acquiring knowledge of English, and if they reach this goal, they will then know English.”

IfsKnowsWayChildrenPersonsStillsDifferentLanguageGoalPerfectExampleEnglish LanguageForeignersAcquiring Knowledge
Book:Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use
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“As long as people are marginalized and distracted [they] have no way to organize or articulate their sentiments, or even know that others have these sentiments. People assume that they are the only people with a crazy idea in their heads. They never hear it from anywhere else. Nobody's supposed to think that. ... Since there's no way to get together with other people who share or reinforce that view and help you articulate it, you feel like an oddity, an oddball. So you just stay on the side and you don't pay any attention to what's going on. You look at something else, like the Superbowl.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWayFeelsLooksLongIdeasHelpingTogetherSidesViewsPayAttentionShareCrazyAssumingSentimentsOrganizeDistractedGet TogetherMarginalizedOdditiesCrazy IdeasOddballs
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Prophet just means intellectual. They were people giving geopolitical analysis, moral lessons, that sort of thing. We call them intellectuals today. There were the people we honor as prophets, there were the people we condemn as false prophets. But if you look at the biblical record, at the time, it was the other way around. The flatterers of the Court of King Ahab were the ones who were honored. The ones we call prophets were driven into the desert and imprisoned.”

PeopleIfsWayGivingLooksMeanTodayMoralRecordsKingsHonorLessonsIntellectualCourtDrivenDesertAnalysisProphetBiblicalHonoredFlattererGeopoliticalFalse ProphetsAhabMoral Lessons
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Now, the Libertarian Party, is a *capitalist* party. It's in favor of what *I* would regard a *particular form* of authoritarian control. Namely, the kind that comes through private ownership and control, which is an *extremely* rigid system of domination - people have to... people can survive, by renting themselves to it, and basically in no other way... I do disagree with them *very* sharply, and I think that they are not..understanding the *fundamental* doctrine, that you should be free from domination and control, including the control of the manager and the owner.”

PeopleThinkingWayShouldKindFormUnderstandingPartyParticularRegardFundamentalsIncludingLibertarianFavorsDoctrineManagersOwnersDisagreeCapitalistOwnershipDominationLibertarian PartyOwnership And Control
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Jesus himself, and most of the message of the Gospels, is a message of service to the poor, a critique of the rich and the powerful, and a pacifist doctrine. And it remained that way, that's what Christianity was up... until Constantine. :Constantine shifted it so the cross, which was the symbol of persecution of somebody working for the poor, was put on the shield of the Roman Empire. It became the symbol for violence and oppression, and that's pretty much what the church has been until the present.”

WayHas BeensJesusChurchPoorPowerfulChristianityRichViolenceMessagesCrossesDoctrineOppressionSymbolsThriveEmpiresPersecutionShieldsCritiqueRoman EmpirePacifistConstantine
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“The anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit.”

WayShouldHumansFoundEventsTerribleLimitsApproachReflectionCapacityDestructionUltimateDedicatedQuestsHiroshimaSomberTerrible Events
Book:Because We Say So
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