George Orwell: Trending quotes (page 14)

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

Truth , Past

“Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Tree

“It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Truth , Way

“Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Past , Future

“You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“You asked me once,' said O'Brien, 'what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

World

“But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Love , Fear , Victory

“The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Perfection

“That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.”

George Orwell

"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.

Democracy

“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

Freedom

“His answer to every problem, every setback was “I will work harder!” —which he had adopted as his personal motto.”

George Orwell book Animal Farm

Source: Animal Farm

Problem , Personality

“The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.”

George Orwell

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

“In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Intelligence , Understanding

“He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

World , Past , Future , Sea