1,535 Quotes by George Orwell

In the past the need for a hierarchal form of society has been the doctrine specifically of the High. It had been preached by kings and aristocrats and the priests, lawyers and the like who were parasitical upon them, and it had generally been softened by promises of an imaginary world beyond the grave.

إلى المستقبل أو الماضي، إلى الزمن الذي يكون فيه الفكر حرًا طليقًا، إلى زمن يختلف فيه الأشخاص عن بعضهم البعض ولا يعيش كل منهم في عزلة عن الآخر،إلى زمن تظل الحقيقة فيه قائمة ولا يمكن فيه لأحد أن يمحو ما ينتجه الآخرون. و إليكم، من هذا العصر الذي يعيش فيه الناس متشابهين، متناسخين، لا يختلف الواحد منهم عن الآخر، من عصر العزلة، من عصر الأخ الكبير، من عصر التفكير المزدوج، تحياتي !

Today there were fear, hatred, and pain, but no dignity of emotion, no deep or complex sorrows.

In all the useful arts the world is either standing still or going backwards.

Like all man who have lived much alone, he adjusted himself better to ideas than to people.

The thing that strikes me more and more, is the extraordinary viciousness and dishonesty of political controversy in our time. I don’t mean merely that controversies are acrimonious. They ought to be that when they are on serious subjects. I mean that almost nobody seems to feel that an opponent deserves a fair hearing or that the objective truth matters as long as you can score a neat debating point.

It is deliberate policy to keep even the favoured groups somewhere near the brink of hardship, because a general state of scarcity increases the importance of small privileges and thus magnifies the distinction between one group and another.

Heureusement l'ennemi était on ne peut moins entreprenant. Il y eut des nuits où notre position eût pu être prise d'assaut par vingt boy-scouts armés de carabines à air comprimé, ou tout aussi bien par vingt girl-guides armées de raquettes.

No domínio da vida quotidiana afigurava-se, sem dúvida, necessário, pelo menos às vezes, reflectir antes de falar, mas um membro do Partido chamado a emitir um juízo político ou ético devia ser capaz de disparar as opiniões correctas tão automaticamente como uma metralhadora dispara balas.