Quotes About Oppression

I can see the war that's coming and I can see the after-war, the food-queues and the secret police and the loudspeakers telling you what to think.

One of these days, thought Winston with sudden deep conviction, Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like such people. One day he will disappear. It is written in his face.

The [Victory Gin] was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club. The next moment, however, the burning in his belly died down and the world began to look more cheerful.

Animal Farm is not a book about how pigs—animals—when bestowed with power start to behave like men. It is a book about how men, when given power over other men, start to behave like pigs.

For long periods the High seem to be securely in power, but sooner or later there always comes a moment when they lose either their belief in themselves or their capacity to govern efficiently, or both. They are then overthrown by the Middle, who enlist the Low on their side by pretending to them that they are fighting for liberty and justice. As soon as they have reached their objective, the Middle thrust the Low back into their old position of servitude, and themselves become the High.

inequality was the unalterable law of human life.

Below that are the proles, numbering perhaps eight-five per cent of the population. In terms of our earlier classification, the proles are the Low, for the slave population of the equatorial lands, who pass constantly from conqueror to conqueror, are not a permanent or necessary part of the structure.

From the point of view of the Low, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of their masters.

El poder no es un medio, sino un fin en sí mismo. No se establece una dictadura para salvaguardar una revolución; se hace la revolución para establecer una dictadura.

Tutti gli animali sono uguali, ma alcuni sono più uguali degli altri. (All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others).

even the best wall in the world deserves to be pulled down if it surrounds a concentration camp.

Bütün hayvanlar eÅŸittir ama baz?lar? daha eÅŸittir.

A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.

They would have blown his brain to pieces before they could reclaim it. The heretical thought would be unpunished, unrepented, out of their reach for ever. They would have blown a hole in their own perfection. To die hating them, that was freedom.

Hasta que no tengan consciencia de su fuerza, no se rebelarán, y hasta después de haberse rebelado, no serán conscientes. Éste es el problema.

Pân? nu devin comÈ™tienÈ›i, nu se vor r?zvr?ti È™i pân? nu se r?zvr?tesc, nu pot deveni conÈ™tienÈ›i" - 1984

Libertatea este sclavie" "În realitate, nici n-o s? mai existe gândire, în sensul în care o înÈ›elegem noi acum. Ortodoxia înseamn? a nu gândi - a nu avea nevoie s? gândeÈ™ti. Ortodoxia înseamn? lipsa conÈ™tiinÈ›ei.

If human equality is to be for ever averted — if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently — then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.

Morir odiándolos [al Partido], ésa era la libertad.

Cut off from contact with the outer world, and with the past, the citizen of Oceania is like a man in interstellar space, who has no way of knowing which direction is up and which is down. The rulers of such a state are absolute, as the Pharaohs or the Caesars could not be.

Whenever A is oppressing B, it is clear to people of good will that B ought to be independent, but then it always turns out that there is another group C, which is anxious to be independent of B. The question is how large must a minority be before it deserves autonomy.

Suddenly they were both leaping around him, shouting 'Traitor!' and 'Thought-criminal!', the little girl imitating her brother in every movement. It was somehow slightly frightening, like the gamboling of tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters.

Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.

On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrapping of a cigarette packet - everywhere. Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed - no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.