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George Orwell

George Orwell Quotes

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Famous George Orwell Quotes

“It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one’s own body... On the battlefield, in the torture chamber, on a sinking ship, the issues that you are fighting for are always forgotten, because the body swells up until it fills the universe, and even when you are not paralysed by fright or screaming with pain, life is a moment-to-moment struggle against hunger or cold or sleeplessness, against a sour stomach or an aching tooth.”

MomentsBodyPainLife IsFightingUniverseEnemyStruggleIssuesColdCrisisForgottenHungerTeethShipsTortureStomachChamberBattlefieldsSinkingSourFrightSleeplessness
Book:The Complete Works of George Orwell: Nineteen eighty-four
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“He examined the chess problem and set out the pieces. It was a tricky ending, involving a couple of knights. 'White to play and mate in two moves.' Winston looked up at the portrait of Big Brother. White always mates, he thought with a sort of cloudy mysticism. Always, without exception, it is so arranged. In no chess problem since the beginning of the world has black ever won. Did it not symbolize the eternal, unvarying triumph of Good over Evil? The huge face gazed back at him, full of calm power. White always mates.”

WorldTwoPlayProblemBigsFacesMovingEvilBlackWhitePiecesBrotherHugeCoupleEternalCalmChessTriumphExceptionMysticismMatesPortraitsKnightsTrickyInvolvingCloudyGood Over Evil
Book:1984
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“The men who were well enough to stand had moved across the carriage to cheer the Italians as they went past. A crutch waved out of the window; bandaged forearms made the Red Salute. It was like an allegorical picture of war; the trainload of fresh men gliding proudly up the line, the maimed men sliding slowly down, and all the while the guns on the open trucks making one's heart leap as guns always do, and reviving that pernicious feeling, so difficult to get rid of, that war *is* glorious after all.”

MenWellsHeartMadeWarEnoughFeelingsPastDifficultLinesGunRedWindowDown AndMovedGloriousLeapCheerTruckPerniciousSaluteCarriagesCrutchesGliding
Book:Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London
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“Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph. In other words it is necessary that he should have the mentality appropriate to a state of war. It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist.”

ShouldWellsDoeWarMatterStatesPartyNeededVictoryLimitsMembersHappeningsHatredShould HaveIntelligentExpectedMoodIgnorantTriumphAppropriateMentalityFanaticsCompetentPrevailingIndustriousAdulation
Book:1984
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“If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate.”

IfsWorldMayHas BeensSelfHandsMightWould BeLyingSidesBrokenDependsCreaturesHatredContactBombsDeceitRighteousnessEgyptFrontiersForeignersMoraleSelf RighteousnessJavaPersia
Author:George Orwell
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“She had had her momentary flowering, a year, perhaps, of wildrose beauty, and then she had suddenly swollen like a fertilized fruit and grown hard and red and coarse, and then her life had been laundering, scrubbing, laundering, first for children, then for grandchildren, over thirty years. At the end of it she was still singing.”

YearsFirstsChildrenStillsEndsHardSingingRedFruitThirtyGrandchildrenThirty YearsMomentaryFloweringCoarseSwollen
Book:Animal Farm and 1984
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“In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.”

PeopleWorldWayMadeBodyRealityLeftUnderstandingViewsPartyBehindsAcceptingEventsHappeningsBirdHarmSaneGrainIncapableCornViolationWorld ViewLack Of Understanding
Author:George Orwell
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“Friend of fatherless! Fountain of happiness! Lord of the swill-bucket! Oh, how my soul is on Fire when I gaze at thy Calm and commanding eye. Like the sun in the sky, Comrade Napoleon! Thou are the giver of All thy creatures love, Full belly twice a day, clean straw to roll upon; Every beast great or small, Sleeps at peace in his stall, Thou watchest over all, Comrade Napoleon! Had I a sucking-pig, Ere he had grown as big Even as a pint bottle or a a rolling-pin He should have learned to be Faithful and true to thee, Yes, his first squeak should be Comrade Napoleon!”

ShouldFirstsSoulBigsEyeSleepLordSunFireSkyCreaturesShould HaveCleanCalmMy SoulTheeFaithfulBeastBottlesPigsRollingFountainBellyPinsGiverComradeStrawsBucketsBeing FaithfulPintsFatherless
Author:George Orwell
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“For weeks past he had been making ready for this moment, and it had never crossed his mind that anything would be needed except courage. The actual writing would be easy. All he had to do was to transfer to paper the interminable restless monologue that had been running inside his head, literally for years.”

WritingYearsMindMomentsWould BeRunningPastEasyWeekReadyNeededPaperRestlessTransfersMonologues
Book:The Penguin complete novels of George Orwell
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“The result of this is that so-called peace propaganda is just as dishonest and intellectually disgusting as war propaganda. Like war propaganda, it concentrates on putting forward a ‘case’, obscuring the opponent’s point of view and avoiding awkward questions.”

WarResultsViewsCasesPoint Of ViewPropagandaOpponentsAwkwardDisgustingAvoidingWar Propaganda
Book:The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: My country right or left, 1940-1943
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