Quotessence
Home / Authors / George Orwell
George Orwell

George Orwell Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsWarPeopleHumansWritingMenThinkingPoliticalWorldPolitics

Famous George Orwell Quotes

“I do not think one can assess a writer's motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in ... but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape.”

ThinkingWritingMatterAgeAttitudeKnowingSubjectsEmotionalDevelopmentDeterminedMotiveSubject MatterKnowing Something
Book:A Collection of Essays
Create image

“Political writing in our time consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together like the pieces of a child's Meccano set. It is the unavoidable result of self-censorship. To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox.”

IfsThinkingWritingChildrenSelfTogetherPoliticalLanguageResultsPiecesPhrasesOur TimeOrthodoxCensorshipVigorousSelf CensorshipPolitical Writing
Book:The complete works of George Orwell
Create image

“When I talk to anyone or read the writings of anyone who has any axe to grind, I feel that intellectual honesty and balanced judgement have simply disappeared from the face of the earth. Everyone's thought is forensic, everyone is simply putting a "case" with deliberate suppression of his opponent's point of view, and, what is more, with complete insensitiveness to any sufferings except those of himself and his friends.”

FeelsWritingEarthFacesSufferingViewsCasesHonestyIntellectualPoint Of ViewJudgementOpponentsBalancedDeliberateGrindSuppressionForensicsIntellectual Honesty
Author:George Orwell
Create image

“The fact is that every war suffers a kind of progressive degradation with every month that it continues, because such things as individual liberty and a truthful press are simply not compatible with military efficiency.”

KindWarFactsSufferingIndividualLibertyMilitaryMonthsPressesProgressiveAntiwarTruthfulEfficiencyDegradationCompatibleIndividual Liberty
Book:Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London
Create image

“The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought. There are therefore two great problems which the Party is concerned to solve. One is how to discover, against his will, what another human being is thinking, and the other is how to kill several hundred million people in a few seconds without giving warning beforehand.”

PeopleThinkingGivingHumansTwoWarWholeProblemEarthHuman BeingsPartyMillionsPossibilityHundredConcernedAimIndependentSolveSurfaceConquerSecondsWarningIndependent Thought
Book:The Penguin complete novels of George Orwell
Create image

“A plongeur is a slave, and a wasted slave, doing stupid and largely unnecessary work. He is kept at work, ultimately, because of a vague feeling that he would be dangerous if he had leisure. And educated people, who should be on his side, acquiesce in the process, because they know nothing about him and consequently are afraid of him.”

PeopleIfsKnowsShouldFeelingsWould BeFearProcessSidesDangerousStupidSlaveEducatedLeisureUnnecessaryVague
Book:Down and Out in Paris and London
Create image

“No one I met at this time -- doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients -- failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and survives it is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all.”

ThinkingMenHelpingWould BeAliveMetsCreaturesDoctorsFellowsPatientNecksNurse
Book:Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London
Create image

“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.”

HeartEyeAbleUnderstandingAnswersPartyEssentialsIntellectualEvidenceArgumentEarsFinalsDebateEnormousCommandEaseSubtleRejects
Book:Animal Farm and 1984
Create image

“You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Paty, which is collective and immortal.”

ThinkingMindBelieveHumansSelfRealityIndividualMistakeCasesAssumingObjectivesMaking MistakesCollectivesImmortalHuman MindEvident
Book:1984
Create image

“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible... Thus, political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness... Political language [is] designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.”

WritingPoliticalLyingLanguageSoundSpeechMurderDefenseOur TimeTruthfulSheerRespectableBeggingCloudyEuphemismVaguenessPolitical SpeechesPolitical LanguageSpeech And Writing
Author:George Orwell
Create image

“The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”

KnowsBelieveFactsShowsRealityFaithBeliefProcessCapableChecksSooner Or LaterBattlefieldsBumpsUntrue
Author:George Orwell
Create image

“Where this age differs from those immediately preceding it is that a liberal intelligentsia is lacking. Bully-worship, under various disguises, has become a universal religion, and such truisms as that a machine-gun is still a machine-gun even when a "good" man is squeezing the trigger have turned into heresies which it is actually becoming dangerous to utter.”

MenStillsAgePoliticalPoliticsDangerousBecomingWorshipGunMachinesUniversalVariousGood ManDisguiseLackingBullyTriggersHeresyTruismSqueezingMachine Guns
Book:The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell: An age like this, 1920-1940
Create image

“Winston worked in the RECORDS DEPARTMENT (a single branch of the Ministry of Truth) editing and writing for The Times. He dictated into a machine called a Speakwrite. Winston would receive articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, in Newspeak, rectify. If, for example, the Ministry of Plenty forecast a surplus, and in reality the result was grossly less, Winston's job was to change previous versions so the old version would agree with the new one.”

IfsWritingReasonRealityJobsPoliticalResultsRecordsExampleNewsMachinesAgreeVersionsPlentyBranchesDepartmentArticlesMinistryEditingItemsSurplusForecastsRectifyEditing And Writing
Author:George Orwell
Create image

“Sheer egoism... Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen - in short, with the whole top crust of humanity.”

WritingWholeArtistHumanitySuccessfulSharePoliticianScientistSoldierLawyerCharacteristicsSheerBusinessmanEgoismSuccessful BusinessSuccessful Businessman
Book:The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell: An age like this, 1920-1940
Create image

“You must have seen great changes since you were a young man," said Winston tentatively. The old man's pale blue eyes moved from the darts board to the bar, and from the bar to the door of the Gents ... "The beer was better," he said finally. "And cheaper! When I was a young man, mild beer - wallop we used to call it - was fourpence a pint. That was before the war, of course." "Which war was that?" said Winston. "It's all wars," said the old man vaguely. He took up his glass, and his shoulders straightened again. "'Ere's wishing you the very best of 'ealth!”

MenSaidWarEyeYoungUsedCoursesWishDoorsBlueMovedGlassesBarsShouldersBeerBoardsYoung ManOld ManPaleCheaperBlue EyesPintsGreat ChangeDartsGents
Author:George Orwell
Create image

“At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is 'not done' to say it... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals.”

PeopleThinkingIdeasDoneMomentsBodyBeliefGivenChallengesAcceptingOpinionFairsPressesHearingSurprisingForbiddenEffectivenessOrthodoxyBrowsPrevailingFreedom Of The Press
Author:George Orwell
Create image