George Orwell (1903-1950) was one of the most profound social critics of the modern period. Some of his sayings, more than a half a century old, prove the depth of his insight about the future. In his most famous book, 1984 (published in 1949), Orwell predicted many things that characterize today's world.
Some of the following quotes can be found in his well known books, 1984 and Animal Farm (1945). Take a good look at them and you'll be surprised by his awareness of social injustice as well as his sarcasm.
1) “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” (1984)
2) “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.” (1984)
3) “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” (1984)
4) “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” (1984)
5) “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” (1984)
6) “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.” (1984)
7) “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.” (1984)
8) “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” (1984)
9) “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” (1984)
10) “Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.” (1984)
11) “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” (Animal Farm)
12) “On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.” (All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays)
13) “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” (Animal Farm)
Animal Farm has been adapted to film twice; the 1954 film was an animated feature and the 1999 film was a TV live action version.
14) “The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.” (In Front of Your Nose: 1945-1950)
15) “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.”
16) “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
17) “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
18) “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
19) “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”
20) “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
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