To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.
¶ "In Front of Your Nose," Tribune (22 Mar. 1946)
Quotations by ...
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
We have become too civilized to grasp the obvious. For the truth is very simple. To survive you often have to fight, and to fight you have to dirty yourself. War is evil, and it is often the lesser evil. Those who take the sword perish by the sword, and those who don't take the sword perish by smelly diseases.
¶ "Looking Back on the Spanish War" (1943)
Source essay
Those who "abjure" violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf.
¶ "Notes on Nationalism" Polemic, (Oct. 1945)
Commonly misquoted as "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf" (which phrase is not found in Orwell's works). Source essay.
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
¶ "Politics and the English Language," Horizon, (Apr. 1946)
Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
¶ "Politics and the English Language," Horizon, (Apr. 1946)
On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
¶ "The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon, London (Sep 1941)
On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time.
¶ "The Art of of Donald McGill" (1941)
http://www.george-orwell.org/The_Art_of_Donald_McGill/0.html
Power-worship blurs political judgement because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue.
¶ (1946)
The secret of a successful restaurant is sharp knives.
¶ (Attributed)
If large numbers of people believe in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech even if the law forbids it. But if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.
¶ (Attributed)
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
¶ Animal Farm, Preface (1946)
All animals are equal,
But some animals are more equal than others.
¶ Animal Farm, ch. 10 (1946)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
¶ Nineteen Eighty-Four, I.7 (1949)
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
¶ Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part I, ch. 1 (1949)
He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.
¶ Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you insane. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.
¶ Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
¶ Review of A Coat of Many Colours: Occasional Essays by Herbert Read, Poetry Quarterly (Winter 1945)
About WIST
WIST is my collection of quotations I find meaningful, moving, amusing (intended or not), well-phrased, and/or to which I just say I "Wish I'd Said That." But just because I quote it here doesn't mean I actually agree with it. If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to
Quote Search
Use the Fast Search search box to look for text in quotations or their sources.
To search for an author, go to the All Authors page. Or you can also use the custom Google search below for quotes and authors:
Quotes by Author
WIST Info
Powered by
Movable Type 4.01
Movable Type 4.01