Noam Chomsky

The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

These are fashionable people who call themselves philosophers.

Usually, by and large, the U.S. foreign policy, like other major states, is driven by the dominant domestic forces. That’s kind of natural. And the dominant domestic forces are, of course, the corporate sector. That’s not in question.

…if you want to be praised and have your books reviewed and told how brilliant you are and get great jobs, it’s not advisable to be a dissident. It’s not impossible, and in fact the system has enough looseness in it so that it can be done, but it is not easy.

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

It was sort of important for us not to deal with a specific policy change, or a specific sort of approach, but to deal with cultural change.

Hitlers come and go, but Germany and the German people remain.

It’s perfectly obvious that there is some genetic factor that distinguishes humans from other animals and that it is language-specific. The theory of that genetic component, whatever it turns out to be, is what is called universal grammar.

We have the best government that money can buy.

I hope that things will not come to provocations (during the soccer World Cup). If this happens I think it would have very serious consequences for the Ukrainian government in general.

This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism.

I do have a relationship [with Putin] and I can tell you he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today

How do you expect the Germans to revolt when they don’t even dare walk on the grass?

There are on occasions, as we know, when resources are abundant, but they are expended so incompetently that the advantage is nullified.

I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

You cannot put Russia down on its knees and hold it there because Russia will ultimately pull out.

The prevailing pattern is one of indignant outrage over enemy crimes with much self-congratulatory appeal to high principle, combined with a remarkable ability “not to see” in the case of crimes for which we bear responsibility.

Well, if I ever ran for office, I’d do better as a Democrat than as a Republican – and that’s not because I’d be more liberal, because I’m conservative. But the working guy would elect me. He likes me. When I walk down the street, those cabbies start yelling out their windows.

I support immediate financial assistance to the newly elected Palestinian president. Now, I don’t know what those numbers will be, and I don’t know how it’s going to be framed.