“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

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Meaning

This reads as a practical defense of hope, not as naive cheerfulness. It suggests that optimism matters because it shapes action, since people are more likely to accept responsibility and work for change if they can imagine improvement as possible. It lands in civic or personal moments when cynicism feels easier, but commitment needs a reason to begin.

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Originally said in English.

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About Noam Chomsky

American intellectual, philosopher and linguist

Noam Chomsky is an American intellectual, philosopher, linguist, political activist, and social critic. He is widely known for his work in modern linguistics, and is sometimes called the father of that field. He has also played a major role in analytic philosophy and is regarded as one of the founders of cognitive science. Chomsky has held academic posts at the University of Arizona and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is institute professor emeritus. His work spans language, philosophy, politics, and social criticism, and his writing often reflects those wide-ranging interests.

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Books by Noam Chomsky

The fateful triangle

1999

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Failed States

2007

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Power and Terror

2011

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Cartesian linguistics

2003

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Pirates & emperors

2003

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