
“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”
Source: 1984
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
George Orwell 473
English author and journalist 1903–1950Related quotes


Myth and Reality (1963)
Context: In one way or another one "lives" the myth, in the sense that one is seized by the sacred, exalting power of the events recollected or re-enacted.
"Living" a myth, then, implies a genuinely "religious" experience, since it differs from the ordinary experience of everyday life. The "religiousness" of this experience is due to the fact that one re-enacts fabulous, exalting, significant events, one again witnesses the creative deeds of the Supernaturals; one ceases to exist in the everyday world and enters a transfigured, auroral world impregnated with the Supernaturals' presence. What is involved is not a commemoration of mythical events but a reiteration of them. The protagonists of the myth are made present; one becomes their contemporary. This also implies that one is no longer living in chronological time, but in the primordial Time, the Time when the event first took place. This is why we can use the term the "strong time" of myth; it is the prodigious, "sacred" time when something new, strong, and significant was manifested. To re-experience that time, to re-enact it as often as possible, to witness again the spectacle of the divine works, to meet with the Supernaturals and relearn their creative lesson is the desire that runs like a pattern through all the ritual reiterations of myths. In short, myths reveal that the World, man, and life have a supernatural origin and history, and that this history is significant, precious, and exemplary.

Speech delivered at the officers' club (June 16, 1959).
Principles of the 14th July Revolution (1959)

“But at power or wealth, for the sake of which wars, and all kinds of strife, arise among mankind, we do not aim; we desire only our liberty, which no honorable man relinquishes but with his life.”
At nos non imperium neque divitias petimus, quarum rerum causa bella atque certamina omnia inter mortales sunt, sed libertatem, quam nemo bonus nisi cum anima simul amittit.
Source: Bellum Catilinae (c. 44 BC), Chapter XXXIII, section 5
“I have been seized by the power of a great affection.”
p. 181 https://books.google.com/books?id=sUTZCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA181
1990s, The Ragamuffin Gospel (1990)
Source: The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

The West Should Learn the Lesson of North Korea http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/864.htm September 2005.
Iran's nuclear program

Marcellus Wiley: NBA plan to paint 'Black Lives Matter' on courts 'not a good idea' https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/marcellus-wiley-nba-plan-to-paint-black-lives-matter-on-courts-not-a-good-idea (June 2020)