There are people who are convinced of the wickedness both of armies and of police forces, but who are nevertheless much more intolerant and inquisitorial in outlook than the normal person who believes that it is necessary to use violence in certain circumstances. They will not say to somebody else, “Do this, that and the other or you will go to prison”, but they will, if they can, get inside his brain and dictate his thoughts for him in the minutest particulars.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1947-03), “Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool,” Polemic Magazine, No. 7
(Source)
Collected in Inside the Whale, and Other Essays (1962).
Quotations about:
armed forces
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Our national strength matters, but the spirit which informs our strength matters just as much.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Speech, Amherst College (26 Oct 1963)
