1,535 Quotes by George Orwell

The fact is that certain themes cannot be celebrated in words, and tyranny is one of them. No one ever wrote a good book in praise of the Inquisition.

It struck him that the true characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness.

Nimic nu există în altă parte decât în conștiința omului.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals.

It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable, the wrongness of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. [...] He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone – one mind less, one world less.

Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.

It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.

إنه لأمر ذو غرابة، ارتطامك الأول بالبؤس. لقد فكرت طويلًا بالبؤس -فهو الشئ الذس خشيته طوال حياتك، الشئ الذي تعرف أنه سيحصل لك عاجلًا أو آجلًا، لكن ما فكرت به مختلف كليًا. أنت ظننت أنه سيكون في غاية البساطة، غير إنه معقد جدًا. أنت حسبته رهيبًا، و الحق أنه وسخٌ و مضجرٌ فقط.

Vice is punished, but virtue is not rewarded