George Orwell: Trending quotes
George Orwell trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
George Orwell book Animal Farm
Sometimes paraphrased as "Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear."
Variant: Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Source: Original preface to Animal Farm; as published in George Orwell: Some Materials for a Bibliography (1953) by Ian R. Willison
“Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea.”
George Orwell book Coming Up for Air
Source: Coming Up for Air, Part 3, Ch. 1
“History is written by the winners.”
"As I Please" (1943–1947)
Context: During part of 1941 and 1942, when the Luftwaffe was busy in Russia, the German radio regaled its home audience with stories of devastating air raids on London. Now, we are aware that those raids did not happen. But what use would our knowledge be if the Germans conquered Britain? For the purpose of a future historian, did those raids happen, or didn't they? The answer is: If Hitler survives, they happened, and if he falls they didn't happen. So with innumerable other events of the past ten or twenty years. Is the Protocols of the Elders of Zion a genuine document? Did Trotsky plot with the Nazis? How many German aeroplanes were shot down in the Battle of Britain? Does Europe welcome the New Order? In no case do you get one answer which is universally accepted because it is true: in each case you get a number of totally incompatible answers, one of which is finally adopted as the result of a physical struggle. History is written by the winners.
Part II : Shopkeepers At War, § II
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)
George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London
Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 2, Charlie
“On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.”
Source: All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays
George Orwell book Politics and the English Language
"Politics and the English Language" (1946)
Context: 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.
Letter to Frank Barber (15 December 1944)
The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, George Orwell: As I Please, 1943-1945, Editors: Sonia Orwell, Ian Angus. p. 292.