George Orwell quotes - page 4

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. (George Orwell)
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history. View quote
George Orwell
The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth. View quote
George Orwell
Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen. View quote
George Orwell
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. View quote
George Orwell
The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians. View quote
George Orwell
Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence. View quote
George Orwell
Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. View quote
George Orwell
We are in a strange period of history in which a revolutionary has to be a patriot and a patriot has to be a revolutionary. View quote
George Orwell
It is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it. View quote
George Orwell
As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents. (George Orwell)
Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious. View quote
George Orwell
A man may take to drink because he feels himself to he a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. View quote
George Orwell
Beauty is meaningless until it is shared. View quote
George Orwell
The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them. View quote
George Orwell
There is only one way to make money at writing, and that is to marry a publisher's daughter. View quote
George Orwell
It is one of the tragedies of the half-educated that they develop late, when they are already committed to some wrong way of life. View quote
George Orwell
Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache. They wanted to produce a perfect society by an endless continuation of something that had only been valuable because it was temporary. The wider course would be to say that there are certain lines along which humanity must move, the grand strategy is mapped out, but detailed prophecy is not our business. Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness. View quote
George Orwell
It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level. View quote
George Orwell
If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself. View quote
George Orwell
Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip. (George Orwell)
If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love. View quote
George Orwell
Fate seemed to be playing a series of extraordinarily unamusing jokes. View quote
George Orwell
Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea. View quote
George Orwell
The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude. View quote
George Orwell