All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.
- Topic: Freedom, Leadership, Liberty, Society
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from George Orwell
They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various “party lines.”
Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.
It is frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.
Films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.
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The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of tyrants.
O beautiful for spacious skies, For Amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
When even one American, who has done nothing wrong, is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
The stability of the internal medium is a primary condition for the freedom and independence of certain living bodies in relation to the environment surrounding them.
What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what they are going to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
Freedom exists not to do what you like but to have the right to do what you ought.
One man thinks himself the master of others but remains more of a slave than they are.
You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.
Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man's mind.
I'm a writer, and I will write what I want to write.
It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not to waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.
Love inspires, illumines, designates and leads the way.
A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.
In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the induction of a new order of things.
I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
Either you will control your government, or government will control you.
If we are to achieve richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.
Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited.
To change your mind and to follow him who sets you straight is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.
They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.
I shall work for the Republican party and call on all women to join me, precisely…for what that party has done and promises to do for women, nothing more, nothing less.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bond together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.
Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty to our free society is not only basic to a university but to the entire nation.
We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall be given a square deal.
It was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with.
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.
You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.
The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government—lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.
You cannot possibly have a broader basis for any government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.
I propose to raise a revolution against the lie that the majority has the monopoly of the truth.
There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.