xy
@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023
“Progress is not an illusion; it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
“To enforce the lies of the present, it is necessary to erase the truths of the past.”
George Orwell book 1984
Attributed to Orwell by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC (27 September 2006), this seems to be a paraphrase of some of the statements in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Misattributed
Source: 1984
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
"Don't Let Colonel Blimp Ruin the Home Guard" article for the Evening Standard, 8 January 1941
Context: Even as it stands, the Home Guard could only exist in a country where men feel themselves free. The totalitarian states can do great things, but there is one thing they cannot do: they cannot give the factory-worker a rifle and tell him to take it home and keep it in his bedroom. THAT RIFLE HANGING ON THE WALL OF THE WORKING-CLASS FLAT OR LABOURER'S COTTAGE, IS THE SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY. IT IS OUR JOB TO SEE THAT IT STAYS THERE.
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.”
George Orwell book 1984
Variant: Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
Source: 1984
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
Letter to Malcolm Muggeridge (4 December 1948), quoted in Malcolm Muggeridge: A Life (1980) by Ian Hunter
Source: The Lost Orwell: Being a Supplement to The Complete Works of George Orwell