Quotes from George Orwell

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.

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

An 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.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

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.

To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself.

Myths which are believed in tend to become true.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. George Orwell

Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

The English are not happy unless they are miserable, the Irish are not at peace unless they are at war, and the Scots are not at home unless they are abroad.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.

Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal.

Serious sport is war minus the shooting.

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

...I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than 20 weak ones. All true tea-lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes....

In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.

I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant.

I doubt whether classical education ever has been or can be successfully carried out without corporal punishment.

It is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie... a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.