Quotations The Best George Orwell Quotes

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List Rules Must be a famous or well-known quote. If a quote is cut off you can hover over the text to see the full quote.

A list of the best George Orwell quotes. This list is arranged by which famous George Orwell quotes have received the most votes, so only the greatest George Orwell quotes are at the top of the list. All the most popular quotes from George Orwell should be listed here, but if any were missed you can add more at the end of the list. This list includes notable George Orwell quotes on various subjects, many of which are inspirational and thought provoking.

This list answers the questions, "What are the best George Orwell quotes?" and "What is the most famous George Orwell quote?"

You can see what subjects these historic George Orwell quotes fall under displayed to the right of the quote. Be sure to vote so your favorite George Orwell saying won't fall to the bottom of the list.

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1
44 4

Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. George Orwell

2
33 3

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

3
11 0

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

4
45 6

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

5
31 3

To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle. George Orwell

6
25 2

To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up. George Orwell

7
30 3

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

8
34 4

Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper. George Orwell

9
23 2

Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. George Orwell

10
17 1

To accept civilization as it is practically means accepting decay. George Orwell

11
22 2

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

12
34 6

A liberal is a power worshipper without the power. George Orwell

13
31 5

One cannot really be a Catholic and grown up. George Orwell

14
24 3

WAR IS PEACEFREEDOM IS SLAVERYIGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. George Orwell

15
19 2

The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun. George Orwell

16
19 2

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness George Orwell

17
14 1

For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle (home life, and perhaps the trade unions or local politics) he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him. George Orwell

18
8 0

Good novels are not written by orthodoxy-sniffers, nor by people who are conscience-stricken about their own orthodoxy. Good novels are written by people who are not frightened. George Orwell

19
28 5

Four legs good, two legs bad. George Orwell

20
17 2

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. George Orwell

21
17 2

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy? George Orwell

22
12 1

A dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion. George Orwell

23
15 2

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

24
15 2

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

25
17 4

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

26
11 1

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. George Orwell

27
11 1

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

28
11 1

The intellectual is different from the ordinary man, but only in certain sections of his personality, and even then not all the time. George Orwell

29
11 1

Throughout recorded time... there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other. The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. George Orwell

30
14 3

To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others. George Orwell

31
13 3

Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent. George Orwell

32
10 1

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. George Orwell

33
11 2

To a surprising extent the war-lords in shining armor, the apostles of the martial virtues, tend not to die fighting when the time comes. History is full of ignominious getaways by the great and famous. George Orwell

34
14 5

We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun. George Orwell

35
9 1

Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing. George Orwell

36
10 2

The main motive for nonattachment is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work. George Orwell

37
10 2

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

38
8 1

He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him). George Orwell

39
10 4

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

40
6 1

A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him. George Orwell

41
6 1

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

42
6 1

One can love a child, perhaps, more deeply than one can love another adult, but it is rash to assume that the child feels any love in return. George Orwell

43
6 1

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible. George Orwell

44
9 4

Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility. George Orwell

45
8 3

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. George Orwell

46
6 1

Power-worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible. George Orwell

47
6 1

The existence of good bad literature --the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one's intellect simply refuses to take seriously --is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration. George Orwell

48
6 1

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals. George Orwell

49
6 2

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

50
6 2

Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise. George Orwell

1 44 4 Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. George Orwell

2 33 3 On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time. George Orwell

3 11 0 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

4 45 6 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

5 31 3 To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle. George Orwell

7 30 3 All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. George Orwell

8 34 4 Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper. George Orwell

9 23 2 Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. George Orwell

10 17 1 To accept civilization as it is practically means accepting decay. George Orwell

11 22 2 To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself. George Orwell

12 34 6 A liberal is a power worshipper without the power. George Orwell

13 31 5 One cannot really be a Catholic and grown up. George Orwell

14 24 3 WAR IS PEACEFREEDOM IS SLAVERYIGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. George Orwell

15 19 2 The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun. George Orwell

16 19 2 Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness George Orwell

18 8 0 Good novels are not written by orthodoxy-sniffers, nor by people who are conscience-stricken about their own orthodoxy. Good novels are written by people who are not frightened. George Orwell

19 28 5 Four legs good, two legs bad. George Orwell

20 17 2 Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. George Orwell

21 17 2 What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy? George Orwell

22 12 1 A dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion. George Orwell

23 15 2 One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship. George Orwell

24 15 2 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

25 17 4 If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever. George Orwell

26 11 1 The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. George Orwell

27 11 1 Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers. George Orwell

28 11 1 The intellectual is different from the ordinary man, but only in certain sections of his personality, and even then not all the time. George Orwell

30 14 3 To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others. George Orwell

31 13 3 Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent. George Orwell

32 10 1 Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. George Orwell

33 11 2 To a surprising extent the war-lords in shining armor, the apostles of the martial virtues, tend not to die fighting when the time comes. History is full of ignominious getaways by the great and famous. George Orwell

34 14 5 We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun. George Orwell

35 9 1 Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing. George Orwell

36 10 2 The main motive for nonattachment is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work. George Orwell

37 10 2 Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. George Orwell

38 8 1 He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him). George Orwell

39 10 4 No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer. George Orwell

40 6 1 A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him. George Orwell

41 6 1 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

42 6 1 One can love a child, perhaps, more deeply than one can love another adult, but it is rash to assume that the child feels any love in return. George Orwell

43 6 1 Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible. George Orwell

44 9 4 Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility. George Orwell

45 8 3 Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. George Orwell

46 6 1 Power-worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible. George Orwell

47 6 1 The existence of good bad literature --the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one's intellect simply refuses to take seriously --is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration. George Orwell

49 6 2 Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards. George Orwell

50 6 2 Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise. George Orwell

not on the list? add item #78 List Rules: Must be a famous or well-known quote. If a quote is cut off you can hover over the text to see the full quote.