George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair, who used the pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 June 1903
CityMotihari, India
giving minorities politics
...in the negative part of Professor's Hayek's thesis there is a great deal of truth. It cannot be said too often - at any rate, it is not being said nearly often enough - that collectivism is not inherently democratic, but, on the contrary, gives to a tyrannical minority such powers as the Spanish Inquisitors never dreamt of.
reality skulls mind
We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull.
deceit speaking truth universal
Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.
commands conquers controls future past
He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future conquers the past.
controls
He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.
time writing political-language
In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.
democratic-socialism lines serious
Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism as I understand it.
mistake past order
A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible. But since, in practice, no one is infallible, it is frequently necessary to rearrange past events in order to show that this or that mistake was not made, or that this or that imaginary triumph actually happened.
intelligent men intelligence
We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
time freedom future
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
mistake party reality
Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.
honesty writing views
When I talk to anyone or read the writings of anyone who has any axe to grind, I feel that intellectual honesty and balanced judgement have simply disappeared from the face of the earth. Everyone's thought is forensic, everyone is simply putting a "case" with deliberate suppression of his opponent's point of view, and, what is more, with complete insensitiveness to any sufferings except those of himself and his friends.
equality literature revolution
No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer.
honesty lying believe
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy ....