1,535 Quotes by George Orwell

Public opinion is less tolerant than any system of law.

If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate. It is therefore realized on all sides that however ofter Persia, or Egypt, or Java, or Ceylon may change hands, the main frontiers must never be crossed by anything except bombs.

If human equality is to be for ever averted — if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently — then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.

In the better light of the living room he noticed with interest that there actually was dust in the creases of her face.

There was the usual boiled-cabbage smell, common to the whole building. but it was shot through by a sharper reek of sweat, which one knew this at the first sniff, though it was hard to say how was the sweat of some person not present at the moment.

Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.

If you look for the working classes in fiction, and especially English fiction, all you find is a hole.

If men would behave decently, the world would be decent.

Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.