George Orwell Quotes

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  The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.

  George Orwell

  Inspirational, Life, Hate

  622 Copy quote

• The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

  George Orwell

  Inspirational, Life, People

  472 Copy quote

• All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.

  George Orwell

  Force, Fraud, Tyranny

  325 Copy quote

• The people will believe what the media tells them they believe.

  George Orwell

  Believe, Media, People

  399 Copy quote

• Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day be day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except the endless present in which the party is always right.

  George Orwell

  Party, Book, Politics

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.249, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  291 Copy quote

• In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

  George Orwell

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Wisdom

  442 Copy quote

• Free speech is my right to say what you don't want to hear.

  George Orwell

  Speech, Want, Free Speech

  163 Copy quote
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  The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.

  George Orwell

  Lying, Past, Forgotten

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.173, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  326 Copy quote

• There is no swifter route to the corruption of thought than through the corruption of language

  George Orwell

  Language, Corruption, Routes

  119 Copy quote

• It's frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.

  George Orwell

  People, Ignorant, Influence

  "George Orwell: A Life in Letters".

  223 Copy quote

• Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.

  George Orwell

  Stupid, Believe, Ideas

  115 Copy quote

• A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.

  George Orwell

  Class, Succeed, Objective Truth

  George Orwell (1956). “The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage”, New York : Harcourt, Brace

  172 Copy quote

• Real power is achieved when the ruling class controls the material essentials of life, granting and withholding them from the masses as if they were privileges.

  George Orwell

  Real, Class, Essentials

  60 Copy quote

• However much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing.

  George Orwell

  Goes On, Deny

  George Orwell (1987). “The complete works of George Orwell: Animal farm”

  138 Copy quote

• 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.

  George Orwell

  Freedom, Writing, Rights

  George Orwell (1998). “It is what I think, 1947-1948”, Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd

  142 Copy quote

• So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot.

  George Orwell

  Fire, Wings, People

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.126, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  228 Copy quote

• Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

  George Orwell

  Witty, Peace, Truth

  "Politics and the English Language" (1946)

  150 Copy quote

• The real test of character is how you treat someone who has no possibility of doing you any good.

  George Orwell

  Real, Character, Doing You

  81 Copy quote

• The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right.

  George Orwell

  Party, Heart, Eye

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.178, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  114 Copy quote

• The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.

  George Orwell

  War, 1984 Movie, East Asia

  68 Copy quote

• All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

  George Orwell

  Peace, War, Lying

  George Orwell (2016). “Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London”, p.69, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  114 Copy quote

• Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.

  George Orwell

  Doe, Want, Publicity

  260 Copy quote

• In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

  George Orwell

  Birthday, Lying, Political Language

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.282, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  104 Copy quote

• If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

  George Orwell

  Inspirational, Life, Freedom

  "The Freedom of the Press" (1945)

  298 Copy quote

• We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.

  George Orwell

  Intelligent, Men, Intelligence

  George Orwell, Sonia Orwell, Ian Angus (1968). “The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell: An age like this, 1920-1940”, Harvill Secker

  66 Copy quote

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