WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- “Arnold Koestler” (1944-09)

Dave — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 13:10:26 +0000

It is not merely that “power corrupts”; so also do the ways of attaining power.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Arnold Koestler” (1944-09)
(Source)

Originally written for Focus magazine. First published in Critical Essays (1946-02).

See Acton.

Orwell, George -- “As I Please” column, Tribune (1944-10-13)

Dave — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:42:47 +0000

Artists don’t so much object to aesthetic discipline. Architects will design theatres or churches equally readily, writers will switch from the three-volume novel to the one-volume, or from the play to the film, according to the demand. But the point is that this is a political age. A writer inevitably writes — and less directly this applies to all the arts — about contemporary events, and his impulse is to tell what he believes to be the truth. But no government, no big organization, will pay for the truth. To take a crude example: can you imagine the British Government commissioning E. M. Forster to write A Passage to India? He could only write it because he was not dependent on State aid.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“As I Please” column, Tribune (1944-10-13)
(Source)

On the limits of public support for the arts.

Orwell, George -- “As I Please” column, Tribune (1946-11-29)

Dave — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 19:19:36 +0000

I think one must continue the political struggle, just as a doctor must try to save the life of a patient who is probably going to die. But I do suggest that we shall get nowhere unless we start by recognizing that political behaviour is largely non-rational, that the world is suffering from some kind of mental disease which must be diagnosed before it can be cured.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“As I Please” column, Tribune (1946-11-29)
(Source)

Variant: "Politics is mostly non-rational; the world is suffering from some kind of mental disorder which must be diagnosed before it can be cured."

Orwell, George -- “Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune (1943-12-20) [as John Freeman]

Dave — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 16:15:07 +0000

Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache. They wanted to produce a perfect society by an endless continuation of something that had only been valuable because it was temporary. The wider course would be to say that there are certain lines along which humanity must move, the grand strategy is mapped out, but detailed prophecy is not our business. Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune (1943-12-20) [as John Freeman]
(Source)

Orwell, George -- “Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune (1943-12-20) [as John Freeman]

Dave — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 21:18:09 +0000

Men use up their lives in heart-breaking political struggles, or get themselves killed in civil wars, or tortured in the secret prisons of the Gestapo, not in order to establish some central-heated, air-conditioned, strip-lighted Paradise, but because they want a world in which human beings love one another instead of swindling and murdering one another. And they want that world as a first step. Where they go from there is not so certain, and the attempt to foresee it in detail merely confuses the issue.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune (1943-12-20) [as John Freeman]
(Source)

Orwell, George -- “In Front of Your Nose,” Tribune (22 Mar 1946)

Dave — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 22:16:06 +0000

The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“In Front of Your Nose,” Tribune (22 Mar 1946)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- “In Front of Your Nose,” Tribune (22 Mar. 1946)

Dave — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:59:11 +0000

To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“In Front of Your Nose,” Tribune (22 Mar. 1946)

Orwell, George -- “In Front of Your Nose” Tribune (22 Mar 1946)

Dave — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 12:04:45 +0000

The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“In Front of Your Nose” Tribune (22 Mar 1946)

Orwell, George -- “Notes on Nationalism” (May 1945)

Dave — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:07:05 +0000

The primary aim of propaganda is, of course, to influence contemporary opinion, but those who rewrite history do probably believe with part of their minds that they are actually thrusting facts into the past. When one considers the elaborate forgeries that have been committed in order to show that Trotsky did not play a valuable part in the Russian civil war, it is difficult to feel that the people responsible are merely lying. More probably they feel that their own version was what happened in the sight of God, and that one is justified in rearranging the records accordingly.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Notes on Nationalism” (May 1945)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- “Notes on Nationalism” (May 1945)

Dave — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 14:25:57 +0000

I think one must engage in politics — using the word in a wide sense — and that one must have preferences: that is, one must recognise that some causes are objectively better than others, even if they are advanced by equally bad means. As for the nationalistic loves and hatreds that I have spoken of, they are part of the make-up of most of us, whether we like it or not. Whether it is possible to get rid of them I do not know, but I do believe that it is possible to struggle against them, and that this is essentially a moral effort. It is a question first of all of discovering what one really is, what one’s own feelings really are, and then of making allowance for the inevitable bias.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Notes on Nationalism” (May 1945)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- “Notes on Nationalism” (May 1945)

Dave — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 18:02:26 +0000

The general uncertainty as to what is really happening makes it easier to cling to lunatic beliefs. Since nothing is ever quite proved or disproved, the most unmistakable fact can be impudently denied.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Notes on Nationalism” (May 1945)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- “Shooting an Elephant” (1936)

Dave — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:51:58 +0000

He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Shooting an Elephant” (1936)

Orwell, George -- “Such, Such Were The Joys…” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 01:21:07 +0000

The weakness of the child is that it starts with a blank sheet. It neither understands nor questions the society in which it lives, and because of its credulity other people can work upon it, infecting it with the sense of inferiority and the dread of offending against mysterious, terrible laws.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Such, Such Were The Joys…” (1952)

Orwell, George -- “Such, Such Were the Joys” (1947)

Dave — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:47:49 +0000

The moral dilemma that is presented to the weak in a world governed by the strong: Break the rules or perish.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Such, Such Were the Joys” (1947)

Orwell, George -- “Such, Such Were the Joys” (1948)

Dave — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 19:09:13 +0000

The child thinks of growing old as an almost obscene calamity, which for some mysterious reason will never happen to itself. All who have pass the age of thirty five are joyless grotesques, endlessly fussing about things of no importance and staying alive without, so far as the child can see, having anything to live for. Only child life is real life.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Such, Such Were the Joys” (1948)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
(Attributed)

Orwell, George -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The secret of a successful restaurant is sharp knives.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
(Attributed)

Orwell, George -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 13:28:51 +0000

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
(Attributed)

Orwell, George -- Animal Farm, ch. 10 (1946)

Dave — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 02:09:23 +0000

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE
EQUAL THAN OTHERS

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Animal Farm, ch. 10 (1946)

Orwell, George -- Animal Farm, ch. 3 (1945)

Dave — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:10:58 +0000

Four legs good, two legs bad.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Animal Farm, ch. 3 (1945)

Orwell, George -- Animal Farm, ch. 3 (1945)

Dave — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 21:36:55 +0000

[T]he behaviour of the cat was somewhat peculiar. It was soon noticed that when there was work to be done the cat could never be found. She would vanish for hours on end, and then reappear at meal-times, or in the evening after work was over, as though nothing had happened. But she always made such excellent excuses, and purred so affectionately, that it was impossible not to believe in her good intentions.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Animal Farm, ch. 3 (1945)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Animal Farm, Preface [Ukrainian ed.] (Mar 1947)

Dave — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:24:12 +0000

Since 1930 I had seen little evidence that the USSR was progressing toward anything that one could truly call Socialism. On the contrary, I was struck by clear signs of its transformation into a hierarchical society, in which the rulers have no more reason to give up their power than any other ruling class.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Animal Farm, Preface [Ukrainian ed.] (Mar 1947)

Orwell, George -- Animal Farm, unpublished preface (1945)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Animal Farm, unpublished preface (1945)
(Source)

The original essay was written in 1945 as an introduction to the first edition of the book, but was left unpublished It was rediscovered in 1971, and finally published under Orwell's name as "The Freedom of the Press," Times Literary Supplement [of London] (1972-09-15).

More history of this quotation here: If Liberty Means Anything At All It Means the Right To Tell People What They Do Not Want To Hear – Quote Investigator®.

Orwell, George -- Burmese Days, ch. 5 (1934)

Dave — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 19:36:03 +0000

It is a stifling, stultifying world in which to live. It is a world in which every word and every thought is censored. In England it is hard even to imagine such an atmosphere. Everyone is free in England; we sell our souls in public and buy them back in private, among our friends. But even friendship can hardly exist when every white man is a cog in the wheels of despotism. Free speech is unthinkable. All other kinds of freedom are permitted. You are free to be a drunkard, an idler, a coward, a backbiter, a fornicator; but you are not free to think for yourself. Your opinion on every subject of any conceivable importance is dictated for you by the pukka sahibs’ code.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Burmese Days, ch. 5 (1934)
(Source)

Of the life of the Englishman John Flory, the protagonist, in Burma, part of the 1920s British Raj. Orwell's first novel, it was based on his own experiences as a police officer in that part of the word. The pukka sahibs were the "excellent fellows," i.e., the European (white) colonialists of the region.

Orwell, George -- Coming up for Air, ch. 5 (1939)

Dave — Tue, 26 May 2020 22:32:01 +0000

There’s some devil in us that drives us to and fro on everlasting idiocies. There’s time for everything except the things worth doing. Think of something you really care about. Then add hour to hour and calculate the fraction of your life that you’ve actually spent in doing it. And then calculate the time you’ve spent on things like shaving, riding to and fro on buses, waiting in railway, junctions, swapping dirty stories, and reading the newspapers.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Coming up for Air, ch. 5 (1939)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Down and Out in Paris and London, ch. 30 (1933)

Dave — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:31:47 +0000

He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbeleive in God as personally dislike Him).

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Down and Out in Paris and London, ch. 30 (1933)

Orwell, George -- Homage to Catalonia, Appendix 1 (1938)

Dave — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:42:44 +0000

One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Homage to Catalonia, Appendix 1 (1938)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, I.7 (1949)

Dave — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:33:47 +0000

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, I.7 (1949)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part I, ch. 1 (1949)

Dave — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:09:33 +0000

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part I, ch. 1 (1949)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened — that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death? The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed — if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
(Source)

Sometimes paraphrased, "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past."

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Dave — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:40:05 +0000

“How can I help it?” he blubbered. “How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.”

“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Dave — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 21:22:18 +0000

O’Brien knew everything. A thousand times better than Winston, he knew what the world was really like, in what degradation the mass of human beings lived and by what lies and barbarities the Party kept them there. He had understood it all, weighed it all, and it made no difference: all was justified by the ultimate purpose. What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1.1 (1949)

Dave — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 16:57:12 +0000

Big Brother Is Watching You.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1.1 (1949)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, 2.9 (1949)

Dave — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:52:20 +0000

The secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one’s infallibility with the power to learn from past mistakes.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 2.9 (1949)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, 3.3 (1949)

Dave — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:16:22 +0000

There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. … Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 3.3 (1949)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, 3.3 (1949)

Dave — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:57:21 +0000

Power is power over human beings. Over the body — but, above all, over the mind.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 3.3 (1949)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, ch. 3 (1949)

Dave — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 17:55:18 +0000

At the moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially, the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, ch. 3 (1949)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 1, ch. 5 [Symes] (1949)

Dave — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:42:01 +0000

Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthdoxy is unconsciousness.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 1, ch. 5 [Symes] (1949)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 3, ch. 4 (1949)

Dave — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:18:05 +0000

Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 3, ch. 4 (1949)

Orwell, George -- The Road to Wigan Pier, ch. 11 (1937)

Dave — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 05:25:16 +0000

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
The Road to Wigan Pier, ch. 11 (1937)

Orwell, George -- Diary Entry (1941-05-18), “First War-Time Diary”

Dave — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:08:59 +0000

If there is a wrong thing to do, it will be done, infallibly. One has come to believe in that as if it were a law of nature.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Diary Entry (1941-05-18), “First War-Time Diary”
(Source)

In context, Orwell is complaining about what he considers squandered opportunities by Britain to occupy Vichy French territories, such as Syria, before Germany could make use of them.

See Murphy's Law.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 5, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Dave — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:42:52 +0000

But every writer, especially every novelist, has a “message”, whether he admits it or not, and the minutest details of his work are influenced by it. All art is propaganda. Neither Dickens himself nor the majority of Victorian novelists would have thought of denying this. On the other hand, not all propaganda is art.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 5, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

See Sinclair.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Dave — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 17:04:43 +0000

What people always demand of a popular novelist is that the shall write the same book over and over again, forgetting that a man who would write the same book twice could not even write it once.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Dave — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 17:45:15 +0000

The thing that drove Dickens forward into a form of art for which he was not really suited, and at the same time caused us to remember him, was simply the fact that he was a moralist, the consciousness of “having something to say.” He is always preaching a sermon, and that is the final secret of his inventiveness. For you can only create if you can care.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Dave — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:41:08 +0000

Most revolutionaries are potential tories, because they imagine that everything can be put right by altering the shape of society; once that change is effected, as it sometimes is, they see no need for any other.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Dave — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 18:20:32 +0000

A good-tempered antinomianism rather of Dickens’s type is one of the marks of Western popular culture. One sees it in folkstories and comic songs, in dream-figures like Mickey Mouse and Pop-eye the Sailor (both of them variants of Jack the Giant-killer), in the history of working-class Socialism, in the popular protests (always ineffective but not always a sham) against imperialism, in the impulse that makes a jury award excessive damages when a rich man’s car runs over a poor man; it is the feeling that one is always on the side of the underdog, on the side of the weak against the strong.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

Orwell frequently used the term "antinomianism," representing defiance of social mores and rules.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Dave — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 16:20:08 +0000

All through the Christian ages, and especially since the French Revolution, the Western world has been haunted by the idea of freedom and equality; it is only an idea, but it has penetrated to all ranks of society. The most atrocious injustices, cruelties, lies, snobberies exist everywhere, but there are not many people left who can regard these things with the same indifference as, say, a Roman slave-owner. Even the millionaire suffers from a vague sense of guilt, like a dog eating a stolen leg of mutton. Nearly everyone, whatever his actual conduct may be, responds emotionally to the idea of human brotherhood.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Dave — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 16:05:24 +0000

When one reads any strongly individual piece of writing, one has the impression of seeing a face somewhere behind the page […] Well, in the case of Dickens I see a face that is not quite the face of Dickens’s photographs, though it resembles it. It is the face of a man of about forty, with a small beard and a high colour. He is laughing, with a touch of anger in his laughter, but no triumph, no malignity. It is the face of a man who is always fighting against something, but who fights in the open and is not frightened, the face of a man who is generously angry — in other words, of a nineteenth-century liberal, a free intelligence, a type hated with equal hatred by all the smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 1, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

Dave — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 23:34:37 +0000

One cannot see the modern world as it is unless one recognises the overwhelming strength of patriotism, national loyalty. In certain circumstances it can break down, at certain levels of civilisation it does not exist, but as a positive force there is nothing to set beside it. Christianity and international Socialism are as weak as straw in comparison with it. Hitler and Mussolini rose to power in their own countries very largely because they could grasp this fact and their opponents could not.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 1, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]
(Source)

Part of Part 1, "England Your England" with the title "The Ruling Class" was previously published in Horizon (1940-12).

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 1, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

Dave — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:15:07 +0000

As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.
They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are “only doing their duty”, as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 2, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

Dave — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:02:33 +0000

In England such concepts as justice, liberty and objective truth are still believed in. They may be illusions, but they are very powerful illusions.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 2, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]
(Source)

Part of Part 1, "England Your England" with the title "The Ruling Class" was previously published in Horizon (1940-12).

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 2, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

Dave — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:21:54 +0000

Why is the goose-step not used in England? There are, heaven knows, plenty of army officers who would be only too glad to introduce some such thing. It is not used because the people in the street would laugh. Beyond a certain point, military display is only possible in countries where the common people dare not laugh at the army.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 2, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]
(Source)

Part of Part 1, "England Your England" with the title "The Ruling Class" was previously published in Horizon (1940-12).

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 2 “Shopkeepers at War,” sec. 1, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

Dave — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:52:35 +0000

Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes.
Internally, Germany has a good deal in common with a Socialist state. Ownership has never been abolished, there are still capitalists and workers, and — this is the important point, and the real reason why rich men all over the world tend to sympathise with Fascism — generally speaking the same people are capitalists and the same people workers as before the Nazi revolution. But at the same time the State, which is simply the Nazi Party, is in control of everything. […]
But the idea underlying Fascism is irreconcilably different from that which underlies Socialism. Socialism aims, ultimately, at a world-state of free and equal human beings. It takes equality of human rights for granted. Nazism assumes just the opposite. The driving force behind the Nazi movement is the belief in human inequality, the superiority of Germans to all other races, the right of Germany to rule the world.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 2 “Shopkeepers at War,” sec. 3, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

Dave — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:16:07 +0000

One ought not to pay any attention to Hitler’s recent line of talk about being the friend of the poor man, the enemy of plutocracy, etc etc. Hitler’s real self is in Mein Kampf, and in his actions. He has never persecuted the rich, except when they were Jews or when they tried actively to oppose him. He stands for a centralised economy which robs the capitalist of most of his power but leaves the structure of society much as before. The State controls industry, but there are still rich and poor, masters and men. Therefore, as against genuine Socialism, the moneyed class have always been on his side. This was crystal clear at the time of the Spanish civil war, and clear again at the time when France surrendered. Hitler’s puppet government are not working men, but a gang of bankers, gaga generals and corrupt right-wing politicians.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-08), “Wells, Hitler, and the World State,” Horizon

Dave — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 01:11:42 +0000

Back in the nineteen-hundreds it was a wonderful experience for a boy to discover H. G. Wells. There you were, in a world of pedants, clergymen and golfers, with your future employers exhorting you to “get on or get out”, your parents systematically warping your sexual life, and your dull-witted schoolmasters sniggering over their Latin tags; and here was this wonderful man who could tell you about the inhabitants of the planets and the bottom of the sea, and who knew that the future was not going to be what respectable people imagined.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-08), “Wells, Hitler, and the World State,” Horizon
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-08), “Wells, Hitler, and the World State,” Horizon

Dave — Fri, 30 May 2025 15:23:52 +0000

The early Bolsheviks may have been angels or demons, according as one chooses to regard them, but at any rate they were not sensible men. They were not introducing a Wellsian Utopia but a Rule of the Saints, which, like the English Rule of the Saints, was a military despotism enlivened by witchcraft trials.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-08), “Wells, Hitler, and the World State,” Horizon
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:51:54 +0000

The high sentiments always win in the end, the leaders who offer blood, toil, tears, and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

See Churchill.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:07:36 +0000

A dirty joke is not, of course, a serious attack upon morality, but it is a sort of mental rebellion, a momentary wish that things were otherwise. So also with all other jokes, which always centre round cowardice, laziness, dishonesty or some other quality which society cannot afford to encourage.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:46:58 +0000

Society has always to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice. It has to demand faultless discipline and self-sacrifice, it must expect its subjects to work hard, pay their taxes, and be faithful to their wives, it must assume that men think it glorious to die on the battlefield and women want to wear themselves out with child-bearing. The whole of what one may call official literature is founded on such assumptions.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 15:09:05 +0000

I never read the proclamations of generals before battle, the speeches of fuehrers and prime ministers, the solidarity songs of public schools and left-wing political parties, national anthems, Temperance tracts, papal encyclicals and sermons against gambling and contraception, without seeming to hear in the background a chorus of raspberries from all the millions of common men to whom these high sentiments make no appeal.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-09), “The Art of Donald McGill,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We have become too civilised 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.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:06:23 +0000

One of the essential experiences of war is never being able to escape from disgusting smells of human origin.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 15:33:08 +0000

People forget that a soldier anywhere near the front line is usually too hungry, or frightened, or cold, or, above all, too tired to bother about the political origins of the war.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 2, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 15:26:13 +0000

But what impressed me then, and has impressed me ever since, is that atrocities are believed in or disbelieved in solely on grounds of political predilection. Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 2, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 2, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 15:19:57 +0000

Official war propaganda, with its disgusting hypocrisy and self-righteousness, always tends to make thinking people sympathize with the enemy.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 2, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 2, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 15:20:57 +0000

But unfortunately the truth about atrocities is far worse than that they are lied about and made into propaganda. The truth is that they happen. The fact often adduced as a reason for scepticism — that the same horror stories come up in war after war — merely makes it rather more likely that these stories are true.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 2, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 3, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 16:32:43 +0000

One of the effects of safe and civilized life is an immense oversensitiveness which makes all the primary emotions seem somewhat disgusting. Generosity is as painful as meanness, gratitude as hateful as ingratitude.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 3, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 4, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)

Dave — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:47:33 +0000

When I think of antiquity, the detail that frightens me is that those hundreds of millions of slaves on whose backs civilization rested generation after generation have left behind them no record whatever. We do not even know their names. In the whole of Greek and Roman history, how many slaves’ names are known to you? I can think of two, or possibly three. One is Spartacus and the other is Epictetus. Also, in the Roman room at the British Museum there is a glass jar with the maker’s name inscribed on the bottom, “Felix fecit.” I have a vivid mental picture of poor Felix (a Gaul with red hair and a metal collar round his neck), but in fact he may not have been a slave; so there are only two slaves whose names I definitely know, and probably few people can remember more. The rest have gone down into utter silence.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 4, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 4, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)

Dave — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:07:41 +0000

I know it is the fashion to say that most of recorded history is lies anyway. I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 4, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)

Dave — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:33:21 +0000

Nazi theory indeed specifically denies that such a thing as “the truth” exists. There is, for instance, no such thing as “science.” There is only “German science,” “Jewish science” etc. The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past. If the Leader says of such and such an event, “It never happened” — well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five — well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs — and after our experiences of the last few years that is not a frivolous statement.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 5, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)

Dave — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 16:37:31 +0000

When one thinks of the cruelty, squalor, and futility of war — and in this particular case of the intrigues, the persecutions, the lies and the misunderstandings — there is always the temptation to say: “One side is as bad as the other. I am neutral.” In practice, however, one cannot be neutral, and there is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one stands more or less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 5, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 6, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)

Dave — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 17:32:31 +0000

I believe that it is better even from the point of view of survival to fight and be conquered than to surrender without fighting.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 6, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1944-06-01), “Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali,” Dickens, Dali & Others (1946), opening words

Dave — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:52:28 +0000

Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1944-06-01), “Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali,” Dickens, Dali & Others (1946), opening words
(Source)

The essay was originally printed in Saturday Book magazine, but the publisher decided it had to be "suppressed on grounds of obscenity" and had the essay physically cut out of each printed copy.

The passage is referring to, among others, Dali's The Secret Life of Salvador Dali (1942).

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-04), “Antisemitism in Britain,” Contemporary Jewish Record

Dave — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 17:19:54 +0000

What vitiates nearly all that is written about antisemitism is the assumption in the writer’s mind that he himself is immune to it. “Since I know that antisemitism is irrational,” he argues, “it follows that I do not share it.” He thus fails to start his investigation in the one place where he could get hold of some reliable evidence — that is, in his own mind.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-04), “Antisemitism in Britain,” Contemporary Jewish Record
(Source)

Written February 1945.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-04), “Antisemitism in Britain,” Contemporary Jewish Record

Dave — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:15:47 +0000

Something, some psychological vitamin, is lacking in modern civilization, and as a result we are all more or less subject to this lunacy of believing that whole races or nations are mysteriously good or mysteriously evil.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)

Dave — Fri, 14 May 2004 12:19:24 +0000

Those who “abjure” violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)
(Source)

This seems to be the origin of the Orwell misattribution, "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." This is not found in Orwell's works (or in those of Winston Churchill, to whom the more colorful quote is sometimes attributed), but was a paraphrase of Orwell by Richard Grenier in his article "Perils of Passive Sex," Washington Times (1992-04-06).

For more discussion of this quotation, see:

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)

Dave — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:05:39 +0000

By “nationalism” I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labeled “good” or “bad.” But secondly — and this is much more important — I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.