Noam Chomsky Quotes

Rebellion is obsolete - change things from the inside working out.

You have to get an individual who's willing to actually struggle with the system to change it. As long as you have people who - to make substantive changes, to make infrastructure changes.

As the Occupy Movement demonstrated, it's tough to change anything when you're talking about everything.

You cannot reform your society or institution without opening your mind.

Some of those men in power, we just have to change their faces because we're not going to change their minds.

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

The progress of society depends on nothing more than the exposure of time-honored abuses.

Nothing happens in America without pressure.

Philosophers have interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it

I believe activism is the true source of change in the world. Pushing to change social structures in communities that you are a part of is critical for making real lasting change.

It will always be important that people continue to push on the system from the outside. It will also be important that people make the changes that we know are necessary on the inside.

No reform ever came from the bottom, and it was always people who understood how the ruling class worked who turned out to be the reformers.

It's the reason why I am always interested in engaging in people who are pushing us and pushing against the status quo. But having been an activist, the only thing that I'm always encouraging activists to do is, once you have raised the issue, and even through controversial means, you have to come behind it with an agenda and the possibility of reconciliation if power meets your demands.

Neither one of us believe that you can fix the culture from within by just throwing money and people at the system. There has to be a systemic change within the system.

The lyrics stand today (1980). They're still my feeling about politics. I want to see the plan. I want to know what you're going to do after you've knocked it all down. I mean, can't we use some of it? What's the point of bombing Wall Street? If you want to change the system, change the system. It's no good shooting people.

If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.That's much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.

The history of political movements in the African diaspora is that the solution to the problem is never in the hands of people who are advancing the movement. I try and operate on my own terms.

I think the reality is that there's a role for everybody to play in the work of social justice and that we have to organize everybody. That means that Silicon Valley has to be organized, the fashion industry has to be organized, the formerly incarcerated have to be organized, the teachers.

One advantage of not being in power is that we can dream of reshaping the world exactly as we please.

Everything I do is political.

If I want to get my ideas out, I have to be involved in the mechanism that the world is ran by.

I'm tired of just introducing legislation that's just not going to change our lives. It's going beyond that.

Sometimes it requires national impetus to deliver real change.

My mother informed me that the way to be a change agent to create change, the first line of defense, or however you want to phrase that, is politics and government.