George Orwell Quotes - Page 8

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• It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself-anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face ... was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime.

  George Orwell

  Expression, Giving, Anxiety

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.161, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  20 Copy quote

• And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

  George Orwell

  Lying, Party, Past

  Nineteen Eighty-Four pt. 1, ch. 3 (1949) See Orwell 19

  23 Copy quote

• The heresy of heresies was common sense.

  George Orwell

  Common Sense, Common, Heresy

  George Orwell (2014). “1984”, p.64, Arcturus Publishing

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• The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule, between good and evil but between two evils.

  George Orwell

  Two, Evil, Choices

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.175, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law.

  George Orwell

  Animal, Law, Public Opinion

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.305, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  19 Copy quote

• The essential point here is that all people with small, insecure incomes are in the same boat and ought to be fighting on the same side. Probably we could do with a little less talk about' capitalist' and 'proletarian' and a little more about the robbers and the robbed.

  George Orwell

  Fighting, Insecure, Economic Inequality

  George Orwell (2016). “The Road to Wigan Pier”, p.150, Jester House Publishing

  19 Copy quote

• Take away freedom of speech, and the creative faculties dry up.

  George Orwell

  Dry Up, Creative, Freedom Of Speech

  George Orwell (1968). “The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: As I please, 1943-1945”

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• Orthodoxy is the ability to say two and two make five when faith requires it.

  George Orwell

  Faith, Two, Orthodoxy

  "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Book by George Orwell, 1949.

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• The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim-for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives -is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal.

  George Orwell

  Men, Abiding, Groups

  George Orwell (2001). “The Complete Novels of George Orwell: Animal Farm, Burmese Days, A Clergyman's Daughter, Coming Up for Air, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Nineteen Eighty-Four”, p.1302, Penguin UK

  41 Copy quote

• When I talk to anyone or read the writings of anyone who has any axe to grind, I feel that intellectual honesty and balanced judgement have simply disappeared from the face of the earth. Everyone's thought is forensic, everyone is simply putting a "case" with deliberate suppression of his opponent's point of view, and, what is more, with complete insensitiveness to any sufferings except those of himself and his friends.

  George Orwell

  Honesty, Writing, Views

  33 Copy quote

• Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea.

  George Orwell

  Men, Ideas, Brain

  George Orwell (1969). “Coming Up for Air”, p.194, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

  George Orwell

  Struggle, Book, Writing

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.316, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  52 Copy quote

• Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same.

  George Orwell

  Opposites, Devotion, Conservatism

  George Orwell, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “The Complete Works of George Orwell: A patriot after all, 1940-1941”

  51 Copy quote

• It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level.

  George Orwell

  Fall, People, Over You

  George Orwell (2012). “Down and Out in Paris and London”, p.130, Lulu.com

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• The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.

  George Orwell

  Book, Nineteen, Insight

  31 Copy quote

• 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

  Strong, Simple, Gun

  George Orwell (1968). “The collected essays, journalism, and letters of George Orwell”

  15 Copy quote

• And in the general hardening of outlook that set in ... practices which had been long abandoned ... -- imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages and the deportation of whole populations -- not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.

  George Orwell

  War, Practice, Long

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

  17 Copy quote

• Myths which are believed in tend to become true.

  George Orwell

  Truth, Political, Belief

  George Orwell, Peter Hobley Davison, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “I have tried to tell the truth: 1943-1944”

  83 Copy quote

• Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

  George Orwell

  Power, Self, Deception

  George Orwell (2005). “In defence of English cooking”, Penguin Hardcover

  44 Copy quote

• No one is patriotic about taxes.

  George Orwell

  Patriotic, Patriotism, Taxes

  George Orwell (2009). “Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays”, p.89, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon.

  George Orwell

  Memories, Past, Agree Upon

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.305, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  24 Copy quote

• The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another.

  George Orwell

  Patriotic, Justice, Democracy

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

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• And if our book consumption remains as low as it has been, at least let us admit that it is because reading is a less exciting pastime than going to the dogs, the pictures or the pub, and not because books, whether bought or borrowed, are too expensive.

  George Orwell

  Dog, Book, Reading

  George Orwell, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “The Complete Works of George Orwell: Smothered under journalism, 1946”

  48 Copy quote

• When I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on.

  George Orwell

  Blood, Enemy, Flesh

  George Orwell (2016). “Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London”, p.131, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• What is to be expected of them is not treachery, or physcial cowardice, but stupidity, unconscious sabotage, an infallible instinct for doing the wrong thing.

  George Orwell

  Stupidity, Instinct, Cowardice

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.272, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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