The quotations of

George Orwell

British writer and journalist

1903–1950

39 quotes, most often on Politics, Patriotism and Writing. Part of the Writers collection.

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of 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.
“Why I Write,” Gangrel (Summer 1946)
- Writing
We are in a strange period of history in which a revolutionary has to be a patriot and a patriot has to be a revolutionary.
Letter to The Tribune (20 December 1940), later published in A Patriot After All, 1940-1941 (1999)
- Patriotism
Has it ever struck you that there’s a thin man inside every fat man, just as they say there’s a statue inside every block of stone?
Coming Up for Air, Part 1, Ch. 3
- Comedy
The essential job is to get people to recognise war propaganda when they see it, especially when it is disguised as peace propaganda.
Review of The Men I Killed by Brigadier-General F. P. Crozier, CB, CMG, DSO, in New Statesman and Nation (28 August 1937)
- War & Peace
Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.
“The Freedom Defence Committee” in “The Socialist Leader (18 September 1948)
- Freedom
Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.
“Benefit Of Clergy: Some Notes On Salvador Dalí,” Dickens, Dali & Others: Studies in Popular Culture (1944)
- Truth & Lies
- Writing
Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip.
“As I Please,” Tribune (7 July 1944)
England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality.
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)
- Patriotism
A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible.
The Prevention of Literature (1946)
- Government
- Power
It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one’s intelligence.
Letter to Richard Rees (3 March 1949), The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Vol. 4: In front of your nose, 1945-1950 (1968), ed. Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus, p. 478
- Intelligence
Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes.
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)
- Economics
- Politics
The fallacy is to believe that under a dictatorial government you can be free inside.
“As I Please,” Tribune (28 April 1944)
- Freedom
- Government
In my opinion, nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of socialism as the belief that Russia is a socialist country and that every act of its rulers must be excused, if not imitated.
Preface to the Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm, as published in The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: As I please, 1943-1945 (1968)
- Politics
Looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery.
“You and the Atom Bomb”, Tribune (19 October 1945). Reprinted in George Orwell: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, Volume 4: In Front of Your Nose 1946–1950 (2000) by Sonia Orwell, Ian Angus, p. 9.
- Freedom
- Slavery
Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness.
“Can Socialists Be Happy?”, Tribune (20 December 1943). Published under the name ‘John Freeman’.
- Philosophy

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