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George Orwell

George Orwell Quotes

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Famous George Orwell Quotes

“The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people - people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from ordinary standards of behavior, just as money frees people from work.”

PeopleTryingGivenHalfPovertyBehaviorNormalStandardsOrdinaryMadParisFallenDecentSolitaryGatheringGiven UpEccentricGrooveSlumsGathering Places
Book:The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage
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“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; today, to believe 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.”

IfsBelieveMightTodayEarthPastBeliefSunTroubleHorrorMadnessRoundsMinoritiesOne TimeLunatic
Author:George Orwell
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“We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how far away that future may be, there is no knowing.”

MayLife IsKnowingBonesDustFar AwayHandfulTrue LifeSplinters
Book:The Complete Novels of George Orwell: Animal Farm, Burmese Days, A Clergyman's Daughter, Coming Up for Air, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Nineteen Eighty-Four
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“On a ruinous wall I came upon a poster dating from the previous year and announcing that ‘six handsome bulls’ would be killed in the arena on such and such a date. How forlorn its faded colours looked. Where were the handsome bulls and the handsome bull-fighters now? It appeared that even in Barcelona there were hardly any bullfights nowadays - for some reason all the best matadors were Fascists.”

YearsReasonWould BeWallSixDatingFighterColourHandsomeArenaBullsFascistsPostersFadedBarcelonaAll The BestForlornAnnouncingPrevious YearsMatadors
Book:Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London
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“Comrades!' he cried. 'You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples.”

WellsHas BeensWholeSpiritNightAnimalImagineObjectsDependsDrinkManagementSakePrivilegeWell BeingSelfishnessSubstancePreservesWelfareApplesFarmsDislikeMilkSoleCriedPigsDay And NightOrganisationComrade
Book:Animal Farm and 1984
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“There are books that one reads over and over again, books that become part of the furniture of one's mind and alter one's whole attitude to life, books that one dips into but never reads through, books that one reads at a single sitting and forgets a week later.”

MindBookWholeForgetAttitudeWeekSittingFurnitureDip
Book:The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: In front of your nose, 1945-1950
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“When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases - bestial atrocities, iron heel, blood-stained tyranny, free peoples of the world, stand shoulder to shoulder - one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy, the appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved”

WorldHumansKindFeelingsHuman BeingsBrainWatchesBloodInvolvedTiredShouldersTyrannyFamiliarNoiseCuriousPhrasesAppropriateIronComing OutPlatformsHeelsAtrocitiesHacksDummy
Author:George Orwell
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“We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how far away that future may be, there is no knowing. It might be a thousand years. At present nothing is possible except to extend the area of sanity little by little. We cannot act collectively. We can only spread our knowledge outwards from individual to individual, generation after generation. In the face of the Thought Police there is no other way.”

WayYearsMayLittlesMightFacesLife IsIndividualKnowingGenerationsThousandAreasPoliceSpreadBonesDustSanityFar AwayThousand YearsHandfulTrue LifeSplintersThought Police
Book:Nineteen Eighty-Four
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“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother”

YearsKindTwoSelfBigsFacesSidesDarkStruggleTakenTearsBrotherVictoryFinishedEnormousNosesBreastsFortyStubbornMisunderstandingExileGinMoustache
Author:George Orwell
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“The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals.”

LoveHumansDoeEndsSometimesIndividualSinImpossibleWillingBrokenPerfectionEssencePreparedSakeLoyaltyCommitPreparationInevitableFriendlyDefeatedBeing HumanIntercourseAsceticismBroken Up
Book:All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays
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“When the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.He becomes a sort of hollow,posing dummy,the conventional figure of a sahib.For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives",and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him.He wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.”

MenTryingFacesTurnsGrowsWhiteConditionsFiguresFitCrisisMaskTyrantsConventionalImpressWhite ManHollowPosingDummy
Author:George Orwell
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“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, 'I am going to produce a work of art.' I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.”

WantWritingArtBookFactsLyingAttentionProduceDrawsConcernHearingWorks Of ArtInitialsWriters And WritingFamous WritersArt Of WritingWriting From Famous Authors
Book:A Collection of Essays
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“Money has become the grand test of virtue. By this test beggars fail, and for this they are despised. If one could earn even ten pounds a week at begging, it would become a respectable profession immediately. A beggar, looked at realistically, is simply a businessman, getting his living, like other businessmen, in the way that comes to hand. He has not, more than most modem people, sold his honour; he has merely made the mistake of choosing a trade at which it is impossible to grow rich.”

PeopleIfsWayMadeHandsGrowsMistakeVirtueRichImpossibleFailingWeekTenTestsTradeProfessionPoundsHonourBusinessmanRespectableBeggarBeggingDespised
Book:Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London
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“It had become usual to give Napoleon the Credit for every Successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to another, "Under the guidance of our leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six days" or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, "thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!".”

GivingTwoEnjoyWaterLeaderSuccessfulFiveDrinkTasteAchievementSixFortuneCreditThanksExcellentGuidanceEggsUsualPoolCowsStrokesRemarksGood FortuneComradeHens
Book:Animal farm: a fairy story
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