Noam Chomsky

“We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”

“Do you train for passing tests or do you train for creative inquiry?”

“I was never aware of any other option but to question everything.”

“The only debatable issue, it seems to me, is whether it is more ridiculous to turn to experts in social theory for general well-confirmed propositions, or to the specialists in the great rel...”

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

“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.”

“Since Jimmy Carter, religious fundamentalists play a major role in elections. He was the first president who made a point of exhibiting himself as a born again Christian. That sparked a litt...”

“Yes, it's simple, really. If you're riding a bicycle and you don't want to fall off, you have to keep going - fast.”

“People are called intellectuals because they're privileged. It's not because they're smart or they know a lot. There are plenty of people who know more and are smarter but aren't intellectua...”

“Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that's where the light is. It has no other...”

“In mathematics, in physics, people are concerned with what you say, not with your certification. But in order to speak about social reality, you must have the proper credentials, particularl...”

“That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean...”

“..reading a book doesn’t mean just turning the pages. It means thinking about it, identifying parts that you want to go back to, asking how to place it in a broader context, pursuing the ide...”

“Karl Marx said, “The task is not just to understand the world but to change it.” A variant to keep in mind is that if you want to change the world you’d better try to understand it. That doe...”

“The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how t...”

“Education is a system of imposed ignorance.”

“Most problems of teaching are not problems of growth but helping cultivate growth. As far as I know, and this is only from personal experience in teaching, I think about ninety percent of th...”

“MAN: Mr. Chomsky, I’m wondering what specific qualifications you have to be able to speak all around the country about world affairs? None whatsoever. I mean, the qualifications that I have...”

“It doesn't matter what we cover, it matters what you discover”

“The other day I happened to be reading a careful, interesting account of the state of British higher education. The government is a kind of market-oriented government and they came out with...”