George Orwell Quotes About Literature

Quotes about: Literature

• The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

  George Orwell

  Peace, Political Language, Atrocities Committed

  George Orwell, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “The Complete Works of George Orwell: I belong to the Left: 1945”

• So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot.

  George Orwell

  Fire, Wings, People

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.126, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun.

  George Orwell

  Running, Food, Gun

  George Orwell (2016). “The Road to Wigan Pier”, p.67, Jester House Publishing
• 

  The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun.

  George Orwell

  Lying, Cities, Police

  1946 'Some Thoughts on the Common Toad'.

• To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself.

  George Orwell

  Dirty, Fighting, Survival

• Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

  George Orwell

  Independent, Civilization, Evil

• Happiness can exist only in acceptance.

  George Orwell

  Happiness, Acceptance, Literature

• What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?

  George Orwell

  Intelligent, Giving, Atheism

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.354, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.

  George Orwell

  Judging, Atheism, Saint

  Shooting an Elephant (1950) "Reflections on Gandhi"

• Dickens is one of those authors who are well worth stealing.

  George Orwell

  Literature, Stealing, Wells

• A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.

  George Orwell

  Men, Tragedy, Triumph

  George Orwell (2009). “Critical Essays”

• If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics - a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage - surely that proves that you are in the right?

  George Orwell

  Ordinary, Literature, Vegetarian

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.335, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.

  George Orwell

  War, Literature, Oceania

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.135, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Scientific education for the masses will do little good, and probably a lot of harm, if it simply boils down to more physics, more chemistry, more biology, etc to the detriment of literature and history. Its probable effect on the average human being would be to narrow the range of his thoughts and make him more than ever contemptuous of such knowledge as he did not possess.

  George Orwell

  Average, Lefties, Would Be

  "What is Science?". Tribune, orwell.ru. October 26, 1945.

• The intellectual is different from the ordinary man, but only in certain sections of his personality, and even then not all the time.

  George Orwell

  Intelligent, Men, Personality

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.130, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• The high-water mark, so to speak, of Socialist literature is W.H. Auden, a sort of gutless Kipling.

  George Orwell

  Water, Poetry, Literature

  The Road toWigan Pier ch. 11 (1937)

• Literature is doomed if liberty of thought perishes.

  George Orwell

  Writing, Liberty, Literature

  1946 'The Prevention of Literature', in Polemic, Jan.

• Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

  George Orwell

  Responsibility, People, Literature

• I'm fat, but I'm thin inside... there's a thin man inside every fat man.

  George Orwell

  Men, Weight Loss, Literature

  Coming up For Air (1939) pt. 1, ch. 3. See also Cyril Connolly (3.85)

• The idea really came to me the day I got my new false teeth.

  George Orwell

  Ideas, New Day, Teeth

  George Orwell (1969). “Coming Up for Air”, p.9, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer.

  George Orwell

  Equality, Reform, Literature

  George Orwell (2003). “1984”, Plume Books

• Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings.

  George Orwell

  People, Temptation, Saint

  George Orwell, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “Our job is to make life worth living, 1949-1950”, Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd

• Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.

  George Orwell

  Birthday, Trust, Eight

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.44, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• It is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

  George Orwell

  Struggle, Writing, Personality

  George Orwell (2009). “Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays”, p.231, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.

  George Orwell

  War, Evil, Literature

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