quotes by George Orwell

"In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
— George Orwell

"He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past."
— George Orwell (1984)

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

"War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength."
— George Orwell

"The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."
— George Orwell

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
— George Orwell (1984)

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever."
— George Orwell

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

"
— George Orwell

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. "
— George Orwell (Animal Farm (Signet Classics))

"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

Politics and the English Language, 1946
"
— George Orwell

"Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one."
— George Orwell (1984)

"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

"Big Brother is Watching You"
— George Orwell (1984)

"The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection"
— George Orwell

"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

"We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness."
— George Orwell

"At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.



"
— George Orwell

"To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle"
— George Orwell

"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know what no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. 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. Now you begin to understand me."
— George Orwell (1984)

"Sanity is not statistical."
— George Orwell