Noam Chomsky Quotes

Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.

Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it. It is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth.

Socrates was executed … not for his megalomania or grandiose propositions or certitudes, but for stubbornly doubting the absolute truths of others.

… a controlled disrespect for authority is essential to a scientist.

The Socratic manner is not a game at which two can play

Dissident intellectuals aren't all beautiful.

We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our education system.

I always grew up with, 'Question authority.'

My profession is I'm a dissident philosopher.

To be a contrarian, you've got to be a contrarian against your own people.

I went to grad school because I wanted to learn the rules so I would know how to break them. Breaking the rules is saying, 'I'm breaking in, OK? I'm breaking in your very comfortable little house over here, and I'm going to take a room.'

More Than' challenges every norm, refuses to accept the rules as they are, one-size-fits-all, and most importantly, 'More Than' implores you to take massive risk.

I have a suspicion of lockstep and everyone looking in the same direction: that's a key character trait in me.

I think there's something important in going against the grain and perhaps finding value in things that aren't necessarily institutionally recognized.

Some will say that I have an issue with authority, but I just like to question things.

Provocative... I used to be defensive about it, but in the end, I realised it's exactly right. It's what we're trying to do - to provoke thought and discussion and, you know, shake people up to start thinking about things in a different way. I'm interested in messing with what they think is the norm.

One of my favorite teachers is Osho, mainly because he liked to push people's buttons just to get them to think and live outside of their comfort zone.

I wanted to go so I could learn the rules and conventions in order to break them later on.

We've always been a band that questions things.

I've always been a guy who goes against everything people say.

The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of infidels.

The fundamental facts about the Greek was that he had to use his mind. The ancient priest had said, "Thus far and no farther. We set the limits of thought." The Greeks said, All things are to be examined and called into question. There are no limits set on thought.

A pipe is a pocket philosopher,--a truer one than Socrates, for it never asks questions. Socrates must have been very tiresome, when one thinks of it.

Human beings understand themselves and shape their futures by arguing and challenging and questioning and saying the un-sayable, not by bowing the knee whether to gods or to men.

Wherever I see some mystique, be it virtue or family, faith or fatherland, there I must commit some indecent act.