There was, in the early days of the United States, an endless future of increasing wealth, freedom, achievement, and power- as long as you didn't pay too much attention to the victims.
-- Noam Chomsky (chapter 1 paragraph 2)

Importance: This quote encapsulates the blemishes on American society, which, despite historical efforts to change the narrative, date back to the country's founding.

One day we must ask the question, 'Why are there forty million poor people in America?' And when you begin to ask that question you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (chapter 1 paragraph 2)

Importance: MLK's words during his infamous speech align neatly with Chomsky's call on the reader to question not only the economic and political system, but the various institutions that subtly control everyday life like the banks, corporations, schools, and so on.

There's gonna be constant pressure- we can be sure of it- from systems of power to prevent...
-- Noam Chomsky (chapter 3 paragraph 1)