G

George Orwell

57 quotes

George Orwell (1903–1950) was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, an English novelist, essayist, and critic best known for the allegorical novella *Animal Farm* and the dystopian novel *Nineteen Eighty-Four*. His clear, direct prose style and fierce opposition to totalitarianism made him one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

“Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child's eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below.”

— George Orwell

Best

All Quotes by 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

War

“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

Great

“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”

— George Orwell

Men

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

— George Orwell

Men

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

— George Orwell

Best

“No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer.”

— George Orwell

Equality

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

— George Orwell

War

“In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

— George Orwell

Time

“He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him.”

— George Orwell

God

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

— George Orwell

Future

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

— George Orwell

Good

“Good writing is like a windowpane.”

— George Orwell

Good

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

— George Orwell

War

“The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.”

— George Orwell

War

“Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.”

— George Orwell

Age

“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.”

— George Orwell

War

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

— George Orwell

Intelligence

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

— George Orwell

Religion

“Four legs good, two legs bad.”

— George Orwell

Good

“Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred, and always stronger than internationalism.”

— George Orwell

Patriotism