However much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing.
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
- Topic: Freedom, Liberty, Society
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from George Orwell
It's frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.
They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.
History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.
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.”
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth.
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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It was while helping others to be free that I gained my own freedom.
As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.
Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.
When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, butt in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.
To change your mind and to follow him who sets you straight is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most impressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be saturated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
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!
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.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the right of the people to peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. -First Amendment
Thus not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within solitude of his own heart.
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.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.
It does not take a majority of prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.
Freedom is to be free from restraint and violence from others.
The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.
Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited.
You find out the necessity of Liberty as you find out the necessity of air—by not having enough of it.
Liberty only survives when it is defended.
I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized.
The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall.
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.
In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils that it creates.
Why has government been instituted? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason & justice without constraint.
It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. . . . I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.
They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.
Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.
I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot. Men are no superior by reason of the accidents of race and color. The are superior who have the best heart—the best brain.
My own art is a negation of society, an affirmation of the individual, outside all rules and demands of society.
Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.
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.
We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.
There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.
If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.
The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.
You don't have to be big or well known to be great.
It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.