Quotes by George Orwell

About George Orwell:

Eric Arthur Blair is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Fear of the mob is a superstitious fear. It is based on the idea that there is some mysterious, fundamental difference between rich and poor, as though they were two different races, like Negroes and white men. But in reality there is no such differe...

George Orwell

The educated man pictures a horde of submen, wanting only a day's liberty to loot his house, burn his books, and set him to work minding a machine or sweeping out a lavatory. 'Anything,' he thinks, 'any injustice, sooner than let that mob loose.' He ...

George Orwell

Remember that the bad days are not forever, and the trouble which seems so terrible at last.

George Orwell

A tramp, therefore, is a celibate from the moment when he takes to the road. He is absolutely without hope of getting a wife, a mistress, or any kind of woman except — very rarely, when he can raise a few shillings — a prostitute. It is obvious w...

George Orwell

The food we were given was no more than eatable, but the patron was not mean about drink; he allowed us two litres of wine a day each, knowing that if a plongeur is not given two litres he will steal three.

George Orwell

A is a slave, and a wasted slave, doing stupid and largely unnecessary work. He is kept at work, ultimately, because of a vague feeling that he would be dangerous if he had leisure. And educated people, who should be on his side, acquiesce in the pro...

George Orwell

Poverty frees them from ordinary standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work.

George Orwell

Be more gay, I beseech you!

George Orwell

It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.

George Orwell

People are wrong when they think that an unemployed man only worries about losing his wages; on the contrary, an illiterate man, with the work habit in his bones, needs work even more than he needs money. An educated man can put up with enforced idle...

George Orwell

Within certain limits, it is actually true that the less money you have, the less you worry.

George Orwell

The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else,and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

George Orwell

A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.

George Orwell

Happiness can exist only in acceptance.

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.

George Orwell

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

Author Bio

  • NameGeorge Orwell
  • DescriptionEnglish author and journalist
  • AliasesEric Arthur Blair; Eric Blair; John Freeman
  • BornJune 25, 1903
  • DiedJanuary 21, 1950
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWar Correspondent; Poet; Essayist; Journalist; Novelist; Literary Critic; Autobiographer; Bookseller
  • WorksThe Road To Wigan Pier; Homage To Catalonia; Animal Farm; Nineteen Eighty-Four; Burmese Days; Coming Up For Air; Keep The Aspidistra Flying; A Clergyman's Daughter; Down And Out In Paris And London; Politics And The English Language; The Lion And The Unicorn: Socialism And The English Genius; Why I Write
  • AwardsPrometheus Award - Hall Of Fame