George Orwell
deceit telling truth revolutionary
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
Political language
"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind"
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
lunatic - minority - one
“Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
Big Brother is Watching You
"Big Brother is Watching You.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
sleep peaceably - violence on their behalf
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
journalism
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
war-propaganda - people who are not fighting
“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
write well - think well - think for yourself
“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
society - thruth - hate speak
“The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
every generation - intelligent - wise
“Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
thought police - thoughtcrime
"The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed—would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."
—George Orwell (1903-1950)
small rules - big rules
“If you kept the small rules, you could break the big ones.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
front nose struggle
"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle"
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
liberty meaning tell people hear
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
sport fair play war shooting rules violence
"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: it is war minus the shooting."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
enemy clear language insincerety
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
creative writer possess truth sincerity
"For a creative writer possession of the truth is less important than emotional sincerity."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
quick way end war lose
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
war shattering materials masses comfortable intelligent
"War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
power means end dictatorship revolution torture power
"Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
live instinct overheard surveillance
““You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.””
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
pain stop hero
“Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
useless work mob leisure bullshit job
"I believe that the instinct to perpetuate useless work is, at bottom, simply fear of the mob. The mob (the thought runs) are such low animals that they would be dangerous if they had leisure, its safer to keep them too busy to think."
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
revolt screen busy notice world
"The people will not revolt. They will not look up from their screens long enough to notice what's happening."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
… from a 2013 play by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan based on the novel 1984 by George Orwell.
freedom two plus two four 2+2=4
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. If that is granted, all else follows."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
Liberty tell people do not want to hear
"If Liberty Means Anything At All It Means the Right To Tell People What They Do Not Want To Hear."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
lunatic minority one horror wrong
“He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; to-day, to believe that the past is inalterable. He might be alone in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong.”
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
animal equal more
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
man animal consume produce
“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.”
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
man creature consume produce
“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing”
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
life miserable laborious short
“Let's face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.”
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
war peace freedom slavery ignorance strength
"War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength."
― George Orwell (1903-1950)
protest argument rebel
“Several of them would have protested if they could have found the right arguments.”
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
society drift truth hate speak
“The more a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
war win won continuous
"The war was not meant to be won. It was meant to be continuous."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)
war internal country destruction structure society civil war
"War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact."
— George Orwell (1903-1950)