George Orwell: Trending quotes

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George Orwell: 946 quotes1091 likes

“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.

“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

“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

“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

“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

“You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“He was conscious of nothing except the blankness of the page in front of him, the itching of the skin above his ankle, the blaring of the music, and a slight booziness caused by the gin.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“If there is hope, it lies in the proles.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“The stars are a free show; it don’t cost anything to use your eyes”

George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London

Source: Down and Out in Paris and London

“But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“Until they become conscious, they will never rebel”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse--hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.”

George Orwell book Animal Farm

Source: Animal Farm

“So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the Earth, and to take pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information.”

George Orwell Why I Write

Source: "Why I Write" http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/essays/write.html, Gangrel (Summer 1946) <br class="br">Context: Anyone who cares to examine my work will see that even when it is downright propaganda it contains much that a full-time politician would consider irrelevant. I am not able, and do not want, completely to abandon the world view that I acquired in childhood. So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the Earth, and to take pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information. It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself. The job is to reconcile my ingrained likes and dislikes with the essentially public, non-individual activities that this age forces on all of us.<br>It is not easy. It raises problems of construction and of language, and it raises in a new way the problem of truthfulness.

“The end was contained in the beginning.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“Power is not a means; it is an end.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“If you set yourself to it, you can live the same life, rich or poor. You can keep on with your books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, "I'm a free man in here" - he tapped his forehead - "and you're all right.”

George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London

Source: Down and Out in Paris and London

“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”

George Orwell

Notes on Nationalism (1945)

“He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

We consider the quote as suspicious, we have no evidence supporting authorship

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims… but accomplices”

George Orwell

According to Reuters Fact Check team there is no evidence of the quotation in collections of Orwell’s works. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-orwell-quote-corrupt-idUSKCN2AT2W5