Motivational and Insightful Noam Chomsky Quotes

Noam Chomsky (1928-) is considered the founder of modern linguistics. He is one of the most cited scholars in modern history. Among his groundbreaking books are “Syntactic Structures”, “Language and Mind,” “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax,” and “The Minimalist Program,” each of which has made distinct contributions to the development of the field. He has received numerous awards, including the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal and the Ben Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science.

Chomsky introduced the Chomsky hierarchy, generative grammar and the concept of a universal grammar, which underlies all human speech and is based in the innate structure of the mind/brain. Chomsky has not only transformed the field of linguistics, his work has influenced fields such as cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, computer science, mathematics, childhood education, and anthropology.

Chomsky is also one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world. He has written more than 100 books, his most recent being “Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power.”
(Bio from University of Arizona)

Chomsky has been a quote machine through his prolific writing, speeches, and interviews. Here are some his best quotes. His words are often biting and take on the establishment and conformity at every turn. While his quotes may not fall into the traditional “motivational quotes” themes, motivation can come from many places. Chomsky is always urging us to see below the surface messages in our culture and look at actual actions and outcomes. That’s how change is inspired.

Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.
The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfill this role requires systematic propaganda.
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.
If we don’t believe in freedom of opinion for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.
We shouldn’t be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.
I was never aware of any other option but to question everything.
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.
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune.
It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.
It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism.
If anybody thinks they should listen to me because I'm a professor at MIT, that's nonsense. You should decide whether something makes sense by its content, not by the letters after the name of the person who says it.
We need not stride resolutely towards catastrophe, merely because those are the marching orders.
Don't be obsessed with tactics but with purpose. Tactics have a half life.
Look, part of the whole technique of disempowering people is to make sure that the real agents of change fall out of history, and are never recognized in the culture for what they are. So it's necessary to distort history and make it look as if Great Men did everything - that's part of how you teach people they can't do anything, they're helpless, they just have to wait for some Great Man to come along and do it for them.
The general population doesn't know what's happening, and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know.
The beauty of the system, however, is that such dissent and inconvenient information are kept within bounds and at the margins, so that while their presence shows that the system is not monolithic, they are not large enough to interfere unduly with the domination of the official agenda.
I do not feel that we should set up people as “models”; rather actions, thoughts, principles.
The world is a very puzzling place. If you're not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else's mind.
A basic principle of modern state capitalism is that costs and risks are socialized to the extent possible, while profit is privatized.
The best defense against democracy is to distract people.
You keep plugging away--that's the way social change takes place. That's the way every social change in history has taken place: by a lot of people, who nobody ever heard of, doing work.
If something is repeated over and over as obvious, the chances are that it is obviously false.
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune.
The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn’t betray it I’d be ashamed of myself.
Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.