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.
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Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

Serious sport is war minus the shooting.

George Orwell

Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

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

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

George Orwell

If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics - a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage - surely that proves that you are in the right?

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

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

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

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

George Orwell

There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one side stands more of less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.

George Orwell

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

George Orwell

Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.

George Orwell

War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.

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