George Orwell quotes

George Orwell, a renowned British author, was born on June 25, 1903. With an exceptional talent for storytelling, Orwell delved into various literary genres including novels, essays, and journalism. His works, still relevant to this day, continue to captivate readers worldwide. Orwell's most famous novels, such as "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Animal Farm," explore themes of totalitarianism, political corruption, and the abuse of power. His insightful observations on society and politics have made him one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Orwell's unparalleled ability to depict dystopian futures has earned him a dedicated following. As an advocate for truth and social justice, George Orwell's works remain timeless, engaging readers with their thought-provoking content. Discover the enduring legacy of this literary genius through his compelling narratives and profound insights.

You can have affection for a murderer or a sodomite, but you cannot have affection for a man whose breath stinks.

- George Orwell

They can make you say anything, but they can´t make you believe it.

- George Orwell

There is only one way to make money at writing, and that is to marry a publisher’s daughter.

- George Orwell

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

- George Orwell

The best books are those that tell you what you know already.

- George Orwell

So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.

- George Orwell

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: It is war minus the shooting.

- George Orwell

Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.

- George Orwell

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

- George Orwell

Most people approve of capital punishment, but most people wouldn’t do the hangman’s job.

- George Orwell

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.

- George Orwell

It´s not much staying alive, it´s staying human that´s important.

- George Orwell

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

- George Orwell

Apologizing does not always mean you are wrong, it just means you value your relationships more than your ego.

- George Orwell

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

- George Orwell

Nearly all creators of utopia have resembled the man who has a toothache and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having a toothache.

- George Orwell

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

- George Orwell

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

- George Orwell

Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books is a quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job. It not only involves praising trash but constantly inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous feeling whatever.

- George Orwell

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

- George Orwell

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

- George Orwell

We of the sinking middle class may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose.

- George Orwell

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.

- George Orwell

The Catholic and the Communist are alike in assuming that an opponent cannot be both honest and intelligent.

- George Orwell

I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.

- George Orwell

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

- George Orwell

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.

- George Orwell

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

- George Orwell

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.

- George Orwell

War is a way of shattering to pieces... materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and... too intelligent.

- George Orwell