George Orwell Quotes - Famous Quotes by George Orwell
Born: 1903-06-25
Died: 1950-01-21
George Orwell Biography
...Two and two are four. Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.
- George Orwell
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Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
- George Orwell
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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
- George Orwell
More quotations on: [ Equality ] ***
An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.
- George Orwell
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Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing.
- George Orwell
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At age 50, every man has the face he deserves.
- George Orwell
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Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad.
- George Orwell, 1984
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Big Brother is watching you.
- George Orwell
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Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
- George Orwell
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Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.
- George Orwell
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Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
- George Orwell
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Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
- George Orwell
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Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
- George Orwell
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For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle (home life, and perhaps the trade unions or local politics) he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavouring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him.
- George Orwell
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Freedom is the right to say two plus two make four. If granted, all else follows.
- George Orwell
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From the totalitarian point of view, history is something to be created rather than learned.
- George Orwell, Essay: "The Prevention of Literature" (1946)
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He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future conquers the past.
- George Orwell
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He who controls the past controls the future.
- George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four"
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If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
- George Orwell
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If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
- George Orwell
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If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.
- George Orwell
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If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.
- George Orwell, 1984
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In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
- George Orwell
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In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion: the more intelligent, the less sane.
- George Orwell, 1984
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In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
- George Orwell
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It is a commonplace that the history of civilisation is largely the history of weapons. In particular, the connection between the discovery of gunpowder and the overthrow of feudalism by the bourgeoisie has been pointed out over and over again. And though I have no doubt exceptions can be brought forward, I think the following rule would be found to be generally true that ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people have a chance. Thus, for example, tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon --so long as there is no answer to it-- gives claws to the weak.
- George Orwell
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It was a cold, bright day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.
- George Orwell, "1984", first sentence
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Liberal: a power worshipper without power.
- George Orwell
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No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is a thing that human beings must avoid.
- George Orwell
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On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time.
- George Orwell
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On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
- George Orwell
More quotations on: [ Goodness ] ***
On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
- George Orwell
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On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
- George Orwell
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One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.
- George Orwell, 1984
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Orthodoxy is Unconsciousness.
- George Orwell
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Orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
- George Orwell, 1984
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Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
- George Orwell, 1984
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Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child's eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below.
- George Orwell
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People sleep peacably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
- George Orwell
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People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
- George Orwell, (attributed)
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Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
- George Orwell, 1984
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Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
- George Orwell, 1946
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Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
- George Orwell
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Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
- George Orwell, 1984 Book 3, Chapter 3
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Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.
- George Orwell
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Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.
- George Orwell
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Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.
- George Orwell
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Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.
- George Orwell
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The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being but to remind him that he is already degraded.
- George Orwell
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The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals.
- George Orwell
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The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.
- George Orwell
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The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
- George Orwell, 1984
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The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
- George Orwell
More quotations on: [ War ] ***
The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
- George Orwell
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The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
- George Orwell, Polemic, May 1946, "Second Thoughts on James Burn
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The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.
- George Orwell
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There could hardly be a town in the South of England where you could throw a brick without hitting the niece of a bishop.
- George Orwell
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To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
- George Orwell
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To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.
- George Orwell
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War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.
- George Orwell, 1984
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War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
- George Orwell, Book "1984"
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We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.
- George Orwell
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Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
- George Orwell
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Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
- George Orwell
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