“War is the greatest of all agents of change. It speeds up all processes, wipes out minor distinctions, brings realities to the surface.”

—  George Orwell

Part III : The English Revolution, § II
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "War is the greatest of all agents of change. It speeds up all processes, wipes out minor distinctions, brings realities…" by George Orwell?
George Orwell photo
George Orwell 473
English author and journalist 1903–1950

Related quotes

Eckhart Tolle photo

“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

A New Earth (2005)
Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

John Pilger photo

“There is no War on Terrorism; it is The Great Game speeded up. The difference is the rampant nature of the superpower, ensuring infinite dangers for us all.”

John Pilger (1939) Australian journalist

John Pilger, 'War on Terror' a smokescreen created by the ultimate terrorist, America itself http://johnpilger.com/articles/-war-on-terror-a-smokescreen-created-by-the-ultimate-terrorist-america-itself

Erving Goffman photo

“There seems to be no agent more effective than another person in bringing a world for oneself alive, or, by a glance, a gesture, or a remark, shriveling up the reality in which one is lodged.”

Erving Goffman (1922–1982) Sociologist, writer, academic

Erving Goffman (1971), Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction, p. 38; As quoted by R. D. Laing in The Politics of Experience
1970s-1980s

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach photo

“The greatest leveler is politeness; it removes all class distinctions.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Die größte Gleichmacherin ist die Höflichkeit, durch sie werden alle Standesunterschiede aufgehoben.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 58.

Deb Caletti photo

“If time heals all wounds, and a book can hold a person's entire life, then you can speed up the process with a pulp time warp.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

Jacek Tylicki photo

“Avoiding all control, I spread out sheets of white paper or canvas in the nature. For some time they stay in the grass, in the rushes of river, in the meadows or among the rocks. Nature registers its presence, covering the surface of the paper with colors, forms and tracks. This process is controlled by a number of agents; such as space and time, substance and causality. It is governed by nature's intensity. It does not, depend on man's interference. Nature is the greatest and most admirable creator, and unlike logic it doesn't fail. The artist obligation is not to shape - handicraft, but to understand the riddles of reality. In such conception of Art there lies, as in the Universe itself, an immense richness, and a countless variety of forms.”

Jacek Tylicki (1951) American artist

Catalogue to exhibition in Gallery 38 - Copenhagen, 1976, as cited in: Leszek Brogowski & Dorota Czerner (transl.). Jacek Tylicki: Art and Artworks. 2014

Bob Dylan photo

“Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Desolation Row

Thomas Mann photo

“Paradox is the poisonous flower of quietism, the iridescent surface of the rotting mind, the greatest depravity of all.”

Thomas Mann book The Magic Mountain

Source: The Magic Mountain (1924), Ch. 5

“The characteristic of life does not lie in a distinctiveness of single life processes. [Lebensvorgänge], but rather in a certain order among all the processes.”

Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901–1972) austrian biologist and philosopher

Source: 1930s, L. von Bertalanffy (1934). "Wandlungen des biologischen Denkens", Neue Jahrbücher für Wissenschaft und Jugendbildung, 10:339-366; as cited in Manfred Drack (2008). " Ludwig von Bertalanffy's Early System Approach http://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings52nd/article/viewFile/1032/322"

Shona Brown photo

“Coadaptation is the process whereby systems of related agents take mutual advantage of each other in order to change more effectively, yet still be adaptive in each agent's particular situation.”

Shona Brown (1960) businessperson

Source: Competing on the Edge, 1998, p. 60

Related topics