Quotes By George Orwell
We of the sinking middle class may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose.
George Orwell
The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
George Orwell
Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell
We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
George Orwell
We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun.
George Orwell
A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.
George Orwell
On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
George Orwell
The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind him that he is already degraded.
George Orwell
Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings.
George Orwell
For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.
George Orwell
It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.
George Orwell
War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.
George Orwell
All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
George Orwell
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
George Orwell
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.
George Orwell
No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.
George Orwell
I doubt whether classical education ever has been or can be successfully carried out without corporal punishment.
George Orwell
The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.
George Orwell
Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.
George Orwell
As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.
George Orwell
The Catholic and the Communist are alike in assuming that an opponent cannot be both honest and intelligent.
George Orwell