Home › Authors › George Orwell
George Orwell Quotes
1903–1950
George Orwell (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was the pen name of British novelist, essayist, and journalist Eric Arthur Blair, whose work is characterised by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and strong support of democratic socialism.
Also known as: Orwell, Orwell, George, As I Please, Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, Eric Arthur Blair
Random George Orwell quote
313 quotes
The intelligentsia are the people who squeal loudest against fascism, and yet a respectable proportion of them collapse into defeatism when the pinch comes. They are far-sighted enough to see the odds against them, and moreover they can be bribed — for it is evident that the Nazis think it worth while to bribe intellectuals.
Looking Back on the Spanish War (1943)
A navy employs comparatively few people, and it is an external weapon which cannot affect home politics directly. Military dictatorships exist everywhere, but there is no such thing as a naval dictatorship. What English people of nearly all classes loathe from the bottom of their hearts is the swaggering officer type, the jingle of spurs, and the crash of boots.
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)
Certainly we ought to be discontented, we ought not simply to find out ways of making the best of a bad job, and yet if we kill all pleasure in the actual process of life, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves? If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him?
Also, one must admit that the divisions between nation and nation are founded on real differences of outlook. Till recently it was thought proper to pretend that all human beings are very much alike, but in fact anyone able to use his eyes knows that the average of human behaviour differs enormously from country to country. Things that could happen in one country could not happen in another.
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Disputed
We have a hunger for something like authenticity, but are easily satisfied by an ersatz facsimile.
Misattributed
There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.
Misattributed Possibly a paraphrase of Bertrand Russell in My Philosophical Development (1959)
We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.
Misattributed
Within any important issue, there are always aspects no one wishes to discuss.
Disputed to Orwell in State of Fear (2004)
The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.
Misattributed
To enforce the lies of the present, it is necessary to erase the truths of the past.
Misattributed
If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.
Disputed
It's not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible. 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.
Misattributed
Topics George Orwell is quoted on
Works