“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

— George Orwell , book 1984

Source: 1984

Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of th…" by George Orwell?

George Orwell photo

George Orwell 473

English author and journalist 1903–1950

Related quotes

“There is no way to hold your own in a relationship and simultaneously accept rude behavior.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“Thought is prior to language and consists in the simultaneous presentation to the mind of two different images.”

T. E. Hulme (1883–1917) English Imagist poet and critic

Notes on Language and Style (1929)

“For almost every principle one can find an equally plausible and acceptable contradictory principle.”

Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001) American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist

Simon, Herbert A. "The proverbs of administration." Public Administration Review 6.1 (1946): 53-67.
1940s-1950s
Context: Most of the propositions that make up the body of administrative theory today share, unfortunately, this defect of proverbs. For almost every principle one can find an equally plausible and acceptable contradictory principle.

“Holding contradictory ideas balances the brain.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

“Having gestured at the concept of rationality, I ought to stress that I intend nothing very grand or precise by that much abused term. When I speak of agents as having rational beliefs, I mean only that their beliefs (what they hold to be true) should be suitable beliefs for them to hold true in the circumstances in which they find themselves. A rational belief will thus be one that an agent has attained by some accredited process of reasoning.”

Quentin Skinner (1940) British historian

Visions of Politics (2002), "Interpretation, rationality and truth"

“... while we must not thrust beliefs on people, belaboring their minds to try to make them accept orthodoxy, we may set these same beliefs before people, showing them the rich truth which we have found and which they may come to receive as their questing mind develops and grows.”

Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976) English theologian

Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.61, [ellipsis added]

“In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within them an invincible power. The unwise destroy themselves in resistance. The skillful accept events, take strong hold of them and direct them.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“Any belief that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief; it is a pseudo belief only.”

Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963) American missionary

Source: The Root of the Righteous (1955), Chapter 13.

“Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.”

Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989) Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights activist

Autobiographical sketch at the official Nobel Prize site
Nobel autobiography (1975)

“Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Related topics