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George Orwell

George Orwell Quotes

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Famous George Orwell Quotes

“The food crank is by definition a person willing to cut himself off from human society in the hopes of adding five years onto the life of his carcase; that is, a person out of touch with common humanity.”

YearsHumansPersonsHumanityCommonFiveCuttingWillingDefinitionsFive YearsHuman SocietyCrankCommon Humanity
Book:Orwell's England: the Road to Wigan Pier in the context of essays, reviews, letters and poems selected from the Complete works of George Orwell
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“Comrades," he said, "here is a point that must be settled. The wild creatures, such as rats and rabbits–are they our friends or our enemies? Let us put it to the vote. I propose this question to the meeting: Are rats comrades?" The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades. There were only four dissentients, the three dogs and the cat, who was afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides.”

SaidThreeSidesEnemyTakenFourDogCreaturesCatVoteMajorityMeetingsOverwhelmingRatsBoth SidesRabbitsProposeComradeWild CreaturesThree Dog
Book:Animal Farm
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“I suppose there is no place in the world where snobbery is quite so ever-present or where it is cultivated in such refined and subtle forms as in an English public school. Here at least one cannot say that English ‘education’ fails to do its job. You forget your Latin and Greek within a few months of leaving school — I studied Greek for eight or ten years, and now, at thirty-three, I cannot even repeat the Greek alphabet — but your snobbishness, unless you persistently root it out like the bindweed it is, sticks by you till your grave.”

WorldYearsSchoolJobsFormThreeForgetFailingMonthsTenRootsSticksLeavingEightGravesGreekThirtyRepeatsSubtleLatinPublic SchoolRefinedPlaces In The WorldAlphabetSnobberySnobbishnessEnglish EducationLatin And GreekLeaving School
Book:The Complete Works of George Orwell: The road to Wigan Pier
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“The existence of good bad literature—the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one's intellect simply refuses to take seriously—is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration.”

ArtBookFactsLiteratureExistenceArt IsMovedRefuseExcitedIntellectRemindersAmused
Book:The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: In front of your nose, 1945-1950
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“Except for the small revolutionary groups which exist in all countries, the whole world was determined upon preventing revolution in Spain. In particular the Communist Party, with Soviet Russia behind it, had thrown its whole weight against the revolution. It was the Communist thesis that revolution at this stage would be fatal and that what was to be aimed at in Spain was not workers' control, but bourgeois democracy. It hardly needs pointing out why 'liberal' capitalist opinion took the same line.”

WorldNeedsCountryWholeWould BeLinesPartyBehindsOpinionDemocracyGroupsStageParticularRevolutionWeightWorkersDeterminedRussiaWhole WorldRevolutionaryThrownCommunistSovietCapitalistSpainPointingBourgeoisPreventingThesisSoviet RussiaCommunist Party
Book:Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London
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“Lastly, tea--unless one is drinking it in the Russian style--should be drunk WITHOUT SUGAR. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.”

IfsKnowsShouldWellsStillsWould BeWaterStyleLoversDrinkHotDrinkingBitterDrunkTeaBeerReasonableMinoritiesMeant To BeSugarSaltTastingPeppersDissolvingFlavourHot WaterSweet Tea
Book:Smothered under journalism: 1946
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“The Seven Commandments: Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. No animal shall wear clothes. No animal shall sleep in a bed. No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall kill any other animal. All animals are equal.”

TwoSleepAnimalEnemyFourDrinkBedEqualClothesWingsSevenLegsAlcoholCommandmentsAnimalism
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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“The birds sang, the proles sang. the Party did not sing. All round the world, in London and New York, in Africa and Brazil, and in the mysterious, forbidden lands beyond the frontiers, in the streets of Paris and Berlin, in the villages of the endless Russian plain, in the bazaars of China and Japan — everywhere stood the same solid unconquerable figure, made monstrous by work and childbearing, toiling from birth to death and still singing.”

WorldMadeStillsPartyStreetsLandFiguresNew YorkBirthSingingBirdRoundsChinaLondonEndlessMysteriousParisJapanVillageForbiddenFrontiersBerlinMonstrousBrazilUnconquerableToilingChildbearingBazaarsChina And JapanStreets Of Paris
Book:1984
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