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

It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.

The death penalty can be tolerated only by extreme statist reactionaries who demand a state that is so powerful that it has the right to kill.

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history.

The people who were honored in the Bible were the false prophets. It was the ones we call the prophets who were jailed and driven into the desert.

To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.

In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.

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.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.