Noam Chomsky Quotes

In the final analysis it doesn't really matter what the political system is...We don't need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation.

By voting, we add our voice to the chorus that forms opinions and the basis for actions.

Democracy belongs to those who exercise it.

We can and must move U.S. politics forward by means of committed participation.

Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.

Being a citizen in a democracy involves more than just voting. It means being involved for the common whole.

Democracy is not something we have, it's something we do.

The American Government will be what we all make of it.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. It is a difficult, hard, full-contact, participatory endeavor.

You have a voice, you have a vote. Use it.

I ask you to find your voice and use it not only to choose your elected officials but to shape the issues that will shape our lives.

We are not exercising our democratic rights properly. We need to stop looking for solutions in others.

Democracy must be conceived as a process, not a goal.

I ran because I became convinced after King was shot and killed, and Martin Luther King was one of the great heroes of my life, that politics is not perfect but it's the best available nonviolent means of changing how we live. If we don't like how we live, we can participate in the perfect most revolutionary act in a democracy, it's called voting.

Democracy makes many taxing demands on its practitioners, but suspension of the intelligence is not one of them.

All the more reason we need to stand up for our democracy now. If we're going to solve the crises that are barreling down on us, we need democracy, and our democracy needs to start with an open and inclusive debate. That doesn't mean 20 candidates. There are four candidates who are on the ballot for just about every voter in America.

The fact that we've been a great democracy doesn't mean we will automatically keep being one if we keep waving the flag.

Tocqueville talked about "ceaseless agitation," citizens constantly use their institutions, constantly challenging them, constantly insisting upon their rights. It's also individuals taking responsibility for other individuals, recognition that no democracy works if they're weaklings.

If the people of the Middle East are not sure what democracy means, let them look to Israel.

Should people be mere "interested spectators of action," not "participants," restricted to lending their weight periodically to one or another sector of the "responsible men," as advocates of "manufacture of consent" have recommended? Or should their rights transcend these highly restricted bounds?

The vote has been costly. Prize it...understand what it means and what it can do for your country.

The spread of democracy, the new foundation of the rule of law, and the creation of fledgling representative governments that honor and respect human rights-together these actions spell out the increasing marginalization of the terrorists, as they have fewer and fewer places to run and hide.

Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.

every individual can make a difference ... if we continue to leave decision making to the so-called decision makers, things will never change.

The masses are the material of democracy, but its form-that is to say, the laws which express the general reason, justice, and utility-can only be rightly shaped by wisdom, which is by no means a universal property.