Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice. George Orwell More Quotes by George Orwell More Quotes From George Orwell I do not wish to comment on the work; if it does not speak for itself, it is a failure. George Orwell wishdoewriting If I had to make a list of six books which were to be preserved when all others were destroyed, I would certainly put Gulliver's Travels among them. George Orwell gulliverlistsbook 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 political-languagerealtruth Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. George Orwell unconsciousnessorthodoxylife One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing. George Orwell You're only a rebel from the waist downwards,' he told her. George Orwell rebel 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 strugglewritingbook Public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. George Orwell public-opinionlawanimal It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself-anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face ... was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime. George Orwell anxietyexpressiongiving If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love. George Orwell marriagelovegiving If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable - what then? George Orwell mindpastworld The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. George Orwell agree-uponmemoriespast One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool. George Orwell ordinarymenbelieve You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that evey sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized. George Orwell assumptiondarknesssound It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure.' 'Why not?' 'It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide. George Orwell hatredsuicidecivilization In this game that we're playing, we can't win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that's all. George Orwell failuregameswinning Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out always cut it out. Never use the passive voice where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. George Orwell passive-voicecuttingthinking Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood. George Orwell marriageloverelationship Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence. George Orwell atrocitiesbelieveenemy The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude. George Orwell should-haveattitudeart
