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

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell

Despotic governments can stand 'moral force' till the cows come home; what they fear is physical force.

George Orwell

Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, '...

George Orwell

The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though u...

George Orwell

From ... the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. ... I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and writ...

George Orwell

I do not think one can assess a writer’s motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in ... but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude fro...

George Orwell

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 ...

George Orwell

All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery. Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by ...

George Orwell

If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.

George Orwell

Good novel are written by people who are not frightened.

George Orwell

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

George Orwell

Good prose should be transparent, like a window pane.

George Orwell

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

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

George Orwell

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

George Orwell

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

No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.

George Orwell

For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.

George Orwell

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

George Orwell

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

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

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

Quotes by George Orwell

About George Orwell:

Author Bio