“The really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits 'atrocities' but that it attacks the concept of objective truth; it claims to control the past as well as the future.”
"As I Please," Tribune (4 February 1944)<sup> http://alexpeak.com/twr/hiwbtw/</sup>
As I Please (1943–1947)
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George Orwell 473
English author and journalist 1903–1950Related quotes
“The truth is more frightening, nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.”
"The Mindscape of Alan Moore" (2003)
Context: The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy or the grey aliens or the 12 foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control. The truth is more frightening, nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.
“The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.”
Source: The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, Part One
“The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it.”
As quoted in Doris Day : Her Own Story (1975) as told to A. E. Hotchner
Preface
The Importance of Living (1937)
Context: This is a personal testimony, a testimony of my own experience of thought and life. It is not intended to be objective and makes no claim to establish eternal truths. In fact I rather despise claims to objectivity in philosophy; the point of view is the thing. I should have liked to call it "A Lyrical Philosophy," using the word "lyrical" in the sense of being a highly personal and individual outlook...
“His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.”
"Kafka and His Precursors" ["Kafka y sus precursores"], as translated in Labyrinths (1964)
Variant translation: The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past, just as it is bound to modify the future.
Other Inquisitions (1952)
Context: In the critic's vocabulary, the word "precursor" is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemic or rivalry. The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.