There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, “That person I see is a savage monster”; instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do. If you ask the ceo of some major corporation what he does, he will say, in all honesty, that he is slaving twenty hours a day to provide his customers with the best goods or services he can and creating the best possible working conditions for his employees. But then you take a look at what the corporation does, the effect of its legal structure, the vast inequalities in pay and conditions, and you see the reality is something far different.

—Noam Chomsky

politics power economics corporations

About Noam Chomsky

Portrait of Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American intellectual, philosopher, linguist, political activist, and social critic. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor...

More quotations from Noam Chomsky

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.

—Noam Chomsky

politics power language decisions propaganda consumption

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

—Noam Chomsky

If you look at history, even recent history, you see that there is indeed progress.… Over time, the cycle is clearly, generally upwards. And it doesn't happen by laws of nature. And it doesn't happen by social laws.… It happens as a result of hard work by dedicated people who are willing to look at problems honestly, to look at them without illusions, and to go to work chipping away at them, with no guarantee of success—in fact, with a need for a rather high tolerance for failure along the way, and plenty of disappointments.

—Noam Chomsky

honesty history disappointment progress failure work laws illusions delusions resilience

If you assume that there's no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, there's a chance you may contribute to making a better world. That's your choice.

—Noam Chomsky

hope freedom change improvement guarantee

More quotations tagged with “economics”

When you go to work, if your name is on the building, you’re rich. If your name is on your desk, you’re middle-class. If your name is on your shirt, you’re poor.

poverty economics work wealth class

A consultant is someone who saves his client almost enough to pay his fee.

—Arnold H. Glasow

economics business consultants

The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied, or reoccupied, by our real problems—the problems of life and of human relations.

—John Maynard Keynes

heart economics head

The truth is, we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.

—Woodrow Wilson

truth economics emotion

Don't you know that if people could bottle the air they would? Don't you know there would be an American Air-bottling Association? And don't you know that they would allow thousands and millions to die for want of breath if they could not pay for air?

—Robert Ingersoll

economics wealth greed

History

28 Sep 2013 Added