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Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky Quotes

Linguist

Noam Chomsky, born on December 7, 1928, is a renowned linguist from the United States. His research in generative grammar and transformational grammar has had a profound impact on modern linguistics. Chomsky's academic achievements extend beyond linguistics, as he is also an active political commentator and philosopher, known for his unique perspective and profound insights.

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Famous Noam Chomsky Quotes

“In America, we happen to be living in a third world country from the point of view of economic and social development. I came back from New York yesterday and I took the fastest train in the country, the Acela. My wife and I took the New York-Boston train sixty years ago - it wasn't called the Acela then - and I think it's improved by about fifteen minutes since then. Any other country in the world would be about half the time. In fact when it's riding along the Connecticut turnpike it's barely keeping up with traffic, which is just scandalous.”

“English is a second language in most of the educated sectors of Europe and much of the world. But maybe in the future Chinese will be. But I doubt that national languages will disappear. In fact, to some extent they're becoming more diverse, like in Europe.”

World Facts Language Doubt Becoming Europe Disappear Educated Chinese Diverse Becoming More National Language

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The Iranian issue I don't think has much to do with nuclear weapons frankly. Nobody is saying Iran should have nuclear weapons nor should anybody else. But the point in the Middle East, as distinct from North Korea, is that this is center of the world's energy resources. Originally the British and secondarily the French had dominated it, but after the Second World War, it's been a U.S. preserve. That's been an axiom of U.S. foreign policy, that it must control Middle East energy resources.”

“Take Cuba. A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it too. But the government won't allow it.”

World Long Has Beens Government Long Time Relation Majority Population Favors Cuba Diplomatic Business World Fluctuation Diplomatic Relations

Author:Noam Chomsky

“We don't have polls from the business world, but it's pretty clear that the energy corporations in America would be quite happy to be given authorization to go back into Iran instead of leaving all that to their rivals. But the state won't allow it. And it is setting up confrontations right now, very explicitly. Part of the reason is strategic, geo-political, economic, but part of the reason is the mafia complex. They have to be punished for disobeying us.”

“By accident of geography, the world's major oil resources are in Shi'ite-dominated areas. Iran's oil is concentrated right near the gulf, which happens to be an Arab area, not Persian. Khuzestan is Arab, has been loyal to Iran, fought with Iran not Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. This is a potential source of dissension. I would be amazed if there isn't an attempt going on to stir up secessionist elements in Khuzestan.”

Ifs World Has Beens War Happens Would Be Source Elements Majors Resources Areas Iraq Oil Accidents Iran Loyal Amazed Geography Iraq War Persian Dissension

Author: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 center of world oil production were in the South Pacific that the United States would've liberated them anyway. It has nothing to do with the oil, what a crass idea. Anyone with their head screwed on knows that that can't be true.”

Ifs Knows World Believe Ideas States United United States South Iraq Productions Oil Being True Liberated Pacific Jelly Pickles Crass Exporting Oil Production

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Moves toward sovereignty in Iraq stimulate pressures first for human rights among the bitterly repressed Shi'ite population but also toward some degree of autonomy. You can imagine a kind of a loose Shi'ite alliance in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, controlling most of the world's oil and independent of the United States. And much worse, although Europe can be intimidated by the United States, China can't. It's one of the reasons, the main reasons, why China is considered a threat. We're back to the Mafia principle.”

“China is the center of the Asian energy security grid, which includes the Central Asian states and Russia. India is also hovering around the edge, South Korea is involved, and Iran is an associate member of some kind. If the Middle East oil resources around the Gulf, which are the main ones in the world, if they link up to the Asian grid, the United States is really a second-rate power. A lot is at stake in not withdrawing from Iraq.”

“The developing world voice can be amplified enormously by support from the wealthy and the privileged, otherwise it's very likely to be marginalized.”

World Voice Support Developing Wealthy Privileged Marginalized

Author:Noam Chomsky

“What has to be done today is (1) large-scale conversion (weatherizing , etc.), (2) sharp change in transportation to greater efficiency, like high-speed rail, (3) serious efforts to move to sustainable energy, probably solar in the somewhat longer term, (4) other adjustments that are feasible. If done effectively, that might be enough to stave off disaster. If not, then we can give up the ghost, because there are no alternatives in this world, at least none that I've seen suggested.”

“If you owned everything and a tiny little piece gets out of control, then your world's gone. Like some unusual child who has a million toys and one of them is stolen, he's going to perish.”

Ifs World Children Littles Millions Gone Pieces Tiny Unusual Toys Stolen

Author:Noam Chomsky

“If [Respulicans] can't get rid of [Obamacare], they're going to have to tell their base, we've been lying to you for the last five years. So they're willing to go to almost any extent to do that. That's unusual, in fact I think it's unique in the history of modern parliamentary systems. And it's very dangerous for the country and for the world.”

Ifs Thinking World Years Country Facts Lasts Lying Five Modern Dangerous Willing Unique Five Years Unusual Obamacare Parliamentary Last Five Years Parliamentary System

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Maybe [the Republicans] 'll find ways around it, but the financial system of the world depends very heavily on the credibility of the US Treasury Department. US Treasury securities are what's called "good as gold"; they're the basis of international finance, and if the government can't uphold them, if they become valueless, the effect on the international financial system could be quite severe. But in order to destroy a limited health-care law, the right-wing Republicans, the reactionary Republicans, are willing to do that.”

“Half of the [USA] population, roughly, thinks the world was created a couple thousand years ago. Two thirds of the country is expecting the second coming of Christ. They've also had to turn to nativists. The gun culture in the United States, which is out of control, is party fueled by people who think 'we've got to have our guns to protect ourselves.'”

“What I've called "the Mafia doctrine" in many publications: when the Godfather issues an edict, others must obey, or else. It's too dangerous to allow disobedience. A leading principle of world affairs - though, of course, officials and commentators put it more politely.”

World Courses Principles Issues Dangerous Affair Doctrine Officials Mafia Disobedience Publication Commentators World Affairs

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The US has been the leading terrorist state in the world for many years.”

World Years Has Beens States Terrorist

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The United States is a very insular society. Most people know very little about the outside world and don't care that much. They're concerned with their own affairs.”

People Knows World Littles States Care United United States Concerned Affair Don't Care Outside World

Author:Noam Chomsky

“People don't have knowledge and understanding about the outside world, or about history [in the USA].”

People World Understanding Usa Outside World Knowledge And Understanding

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Syria is bad enough, it's a pretty terrible atrocity. But there are much worse ones in the world. So for example, the worst atrocities in the past decade have been in the Congo, the Eastern Congo, where maybe 5 million people have been killed.”

People World Has Beens Enough Past Millions Worst Example Terrible Decades Syria Eastern Congo Atrocities

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I should say that Canada is one of the major criminals, not just the tar sands and so on, but even mining throughout the world, a lot of it is Canadian. It's extremely destructive, so an important thing for Canadians to do is curtail the predatory and destructive behavior of their own government and corporations. A carbon tax is one way of doing it.”

World Way Should Important Government Taxes Behavior Majors Important Things Criminals One Way Corporations Canada Sand Destructive Carbon Mining Predatory Carbon Tax Destructive Behavior

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The Obama administration is dedicated to increasing terrorism. In fact, he is doing it all over the world. Obama is running the biggest terrorist operation that exists, maybe in history. The drone assassination campaigns - which are just part of the special forces operations and so on - all of these operations are terror operations.”

World Facts Running Force Special Terror Terrorism Campaigns Terrorist Administration Operations Dedicated Assassination Drones Special Forces

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The rich and powerful countries are trying to wreck as much as possible. You know, go off the cliff as soon as you can. Extract every drop of hydrocarbons off the ground and destroy the environment. At the opposite extreme are countries like Bolivia and Ecuador, indigenous people around the world, and first nations in Canada and tribal people in India, campesinos in Colombia... They're trying to save the commons.”

“In England, enclosure programs kind of destroyed the commons. In the United States, it happened later. But, ah, now it's happening in the world. The last remnant of the commons is the environment, which the indigenous people are still trying to preserve and we sophisticated rich people are trying to destroy.”

“We can try to gain some of the sensibility of some of the indigenous populations of the world or our predecessors 800 years ago. We can laugh at them as being naive and unsophisticated, but unless we can gain that sensibility that there has to be rights of nature as Bolivians and others put it, then we're going to be destroyed.”

World Trying Years Laughing Rights Gains Years Ago Population Destroyed Sensibility Naive Indigenous Predecessors

Author:Noam Chomsky

“America has always been the richest and most secure, and sometimes the most dangerous country in the world. In the early years, the danger was to everybody near us, slaves, Native Americans, Mexicans. It finally expanded in 1898 to the Caribbean, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines.”

World Years Country Sometimes America Dangerous Danger Slave Secure Native Native American Hawaii Cuba Philippines Caribbean Puerto Rico Rico

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Actually, the phrase "national security" is barely used until the 1930s. And there's a reason. By then, the United States was beginning to become global. Before that the United States had been mostly a regional power - Britain was the biggest global power. After the Second World War, national security is everywhere, because we basically owned the world, so our security is threatened everywhere. Not just on our borders, but everywhere - so you have to have a thousand military bases around the world for "defense."”

“Honduras has become a murder capital of the world; there's horrible atrocities, infanticide, murder of women is way up, and people are fleeing in desperation. They come to the border, and we put them in trucks and send them back to Mexico to die. And here people are scared of illegal immigrants - that's what we're doing. It's pretty shocking.”

People World Way Dies Murder Scared Horrible Borders Immigrants Illegal Mexico Desperation Shocking Truck Atrocities Fleeing Illegal Immigrants Infanticide Honduras

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The US cannot be brought to the World Court for major crimes, for example the supreme international crime, invasion, or violation of the UN Charter, or violation of the Genocide Convention, these are things the US is exempt from, because they exempted themselves from being subjected to international treaties in World Court proceedings.”

World Crime Example Majors Court International Supreme Genocide Conventions Invasion Violation Treaties Proceeding Charter

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The US is the wrecking machine that is destroying everything. The world is hoping that China will somehow come to the rescue.”

World Machines China Destroying Rescue Destroying Everything

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The United States is absolutely the most dangerous country in the world.”

World Country States United United States Dangerous

Author:Noam Chomsky

“If in fact, the US story is correct, if it is true that Syria used chemical weapons, then it wouldn't be a major crime to send a kind of shot across the bow saying you can't do this anymore. Not the best thing in the world, but not a major crime, either. So, I think at the very least there should have been an inquiry into what happened. But just joining the bandwagon about how we're finally standing up to crimes in Syria, that's ridiculous.”

“North Korea and China have proposed what sounds like a pretty sensible option that North Korea should end its development of nuclear weapons, the US should stop carrying out hostile military maneuvers on the North Korean border. The US immediately rejected it. Modernization program is a very clear example of how security doesn't matter. There is no gain in security but massive overkill of the adversary's deterrent capacity. The only consequence of it is to elicit the likelihood of a preemptive attack. And a preemptive attack leads to a nuclear winter world.”

World Security Military Consequence Program Winter Sensible Nuclear Weapons Rejected North Korea Korean North Korean

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Since November 8, 2017 the United States is literally alone in the world in first of all refusing to join in efforts to do something about climate change, but even worse, dedicated to making the situation worse. Every part of the world is trying to do something. The United States alone is trying to destroy it, and it's not just Trump, it's the whole Republican Party. You just can't find words for it. And it's not reported. It's not discussed.”

World Trying Party Effort Situation Republican Climate Change Dedicated Republican Party November

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There was an international conference going on in Morocco that was a follow up for the Paris conference - to put some teeth in the Paris agreements. But on November 8, 2017 the conferences stopped. The question was, Will we survive? Not a word about it. Even more amazing, the world is looking to China to save them. The US is the wrecking machine that is destroying everything. The world is hoping that China will somehow come to the rescue.”

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Millions of people are getting the vote, and we have to educate them to keep them from our throats. In other words, we have to train them in obedience and servility, so they're not going to think through the way the world works and come after our throats.”

People Thinking World Vote Train Obedience Educate Servility

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Obama's latest line is that he didn't establish a "red line" but the world did through its conventions on chemical warfare.”

Author:Noam Chomsky

“What can you do to mitigate the likelihood that Iran will develop nuclear weapons? There's a very simple method: move towards establishing a nuclear-weapons-free zone, which everybody in the world wants, but the US blocks.”

World Moving Simple Block Zone Nuclear Weapons

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I am not sure just what Marx had in mind when he wrote that "philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." Did he mean that philosophy could change the world, or that philosophers should turn to the higher priority of changing the world? If the former, then he presumably meant philosophy in a broad sense of the term, including analysis of the social order and ideas about why it should be changed, and how. In that broad sense, philosophy can play a role, indeed an essential role, in changing the world.”

World Mind Mean Philosophy Term Changed Philosopher Various Priorities Not Sure Changing The World

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There are in fact many ways to combat the Trump project of creating a tiny America, isolated from the world, cowering in fear behind walls while pursuing the Paul Ryan-style domestic policies that represent the most savage wing of the Republican establishment.”

World Policy Wall Republican

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The most important issues to address are the truly existential threats we face: climate change and nuclear war. On the former, the Republican leadership, in splendid isolation from the world, is almost unanimously dedicated to destroying the chances for decent survival; strong words, but no exaggeration. There is a great deal that can be done at the local and state level to counter their malign project.”

World Important War Done Strong Chance Republican Survival Threat Climate Change Decent Isolation Dedicated Existential Exaggeration Nuclear War

Author:Noam Chomsky

“My suspicion is that those who seem oblivious to suffering, whether it is nearby or in remote corners, are for the most part unaware, perhaps blinded by doctrine and ideology. For them, the answer is to develop a critical attitude toward articles of faith, secular or religious; to encourage their capacity to question, to explore, to view the world from the standpoint of others. And direct exposure is never very far away, wherever we live - perhaps the homeless person huddling in the cold or asking for a few pennies for food, or all too many more.”

World Suffering Religious Attitude Cold Direct Ideology Far Away Suspicion Secular Homeless Oblivious

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, it is right in the midst of the major energy reserves in the world. Its been a primary goal of US policy since World War II to control what the State Department called "a stupendous source of strategic power" and one of the greatest material prizes in history.”

World War Energy Goal Policy War Of The Worlds Prize World War Ii World War I

Author:Noam Chomsky

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

Thinking World Country Outlaw

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There are enormous opportunities to work for a world that is more free, peaceful and just.”

World Opportunity Peaceful

Author:Noam Chomsky

“My feeling is that the Supreme Court reached a reasonable standard of protection of speech in the 1960s, a standard higher than any other country in the world, to my knowledge. In brief, speech should be protected up to participation in imminent criminal action.”

World Country Feelings Action Protection Participation Supreme Court 1960s

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The term "globalization," like most terms of public discourse, has two meanings: its literal meaning, and a technical sense used for doctrinal purposes. In its literal sense, "globalization" means international integration. Its strongest proponents since its origins have been the workers movements and the left , which is why unions are called "internationals", and the strongest proponents today are those who meet annually in the World Social Forum and its many regional offshoots.”

World Mean Today Purpose Term Integration Globalization

Author:Noam Chomsky

“If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.”

Ifs World Opportunity Freedom Courage Possibility Assuming Instinct Guarantees No Hope Guarantees That Opportunity To Change

Book:Latin America: from colonization to globalization

Source: Latin America: from colonization to globalization

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours.”

“To cite the facts of history is to fall prey to 'moral equivalence,' or 'political correctness,' or 'the error of of atheism,' or one of the other misdeeds concocted to guard against the sins of understanding and insight into the real world.”

World Real Facts Political Fall Understanding Sin Moral Atheism Errors Insight Real World Prey Political Correctness Correctness Citing Misdeeds

Book:World Orders, Old and New

Source: World Orders, Old and New

About the Author

Born: December 7, 1928
Known for: Linguist
Quotes: 1825

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