[Orwell would have enjoyed the irony of David Aaronovitch
winning the Orwell Prize in
2001, similar to Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Straight from
the Ministry
of Truth.]
Quotes by Orwell Goodsex is any form of sex considered acceptable by the Party;
specifically, this refers only to sex for the exclusive purpose of providing new
children for the Party. All other forms of sex are considered sexcrime.
"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."
"One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all
the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are NOT
fighting."----George Orwell, 1938
George Orwell (Eric Blair) writes in his essay “Notes on Nationalism”
(published in Polemic, No. 1, October 1945):
Indifference to objective truth is encouraged by the sealing-off of one
part of the world from another, which makes it harder and harder to
discover what is actually happening. There can often be a genuine doubt
about the most enormous events. For example, it is impossible to
calculate within millions, perhaps even tens of millions, the number of
deaths caused by the present war. The calamities that are constantly
being reported – battles, massacres, famines, revolutions – tend to
inspire in the average person a feeling of unreality. One has no way of
verifying the facts, one is not even fully certain that they have
happened, and one is always presented with totally different
interpretations from different sources. What were the rights and wrongs
of the Warsaw rising of August 1944? Is it true about the German gas
ovens in Poland? Who was really to blame for the Bengal famine? Probably
the truth is discoverable, but the facts will be so dishonestly set
forth in almost any newspaper that the ordinary reader can be forgiven
either for swallowing lies or failing to form an opinion.
"In vast laboratories in the Ministry of Peace, and in experimental
stations, teams of experts are indefatigably at work searching for new and
deadlier gases; or for soluble poisons capable of being produced in such
quantities as to destroy the vegetation of whole continents; or for breeds of
disease germs immunised against all possible antibodies."----George Orwell - 1984
Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with
surprising effectiveness.-----George Orwell (See:
Assassinations,
Persecuted doctors.)
The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with
sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with
it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt.... To tell deliberate lies while
genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient,
and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for
just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all
the while to take account of the reality which one denies--all this is
indispensably necessary.
--George Orwell, 1984 (see)
In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to
Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war
against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war
was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably
fired by the Government of Oceania itself, "just to keep the people frightened."
-- George Orwell, 1984
We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the
first duty of intelligent men.----George Orwell
They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because
they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not
sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening.----George
Orwell
The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own
side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.---George
Orwell (eg:
Iraq,
Depleted
Uranium.)
He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much
disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him. ---George Orwell
"All propaganda is a lie even when its telling the truth."--G Orwell
(see)
"The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but thepersistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life ... A
rulinggroup is a ruling group so long as it can
nominate its successors... Whowields power is not
important, provided that the hierarchical structure
remains always the same."---George Orwell, 1984
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who
controls the present controls the past."--George Orwell (O'Brien in 1984)
[For a good example of controlling the past, see
Vaccine "Lymph"]
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary
act." - George Orwell
"Political language ....is designed to make
lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure
wind."--George Orwell
"Newspeak was the official language ... The purpose of
Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and
mental habits ... but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was
intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak
forgotten, a heretical thought should be literally unthinkable." Nineteen
Eighty-Four, George Orwell. (Taken from
Martin Walker article)
Double think means the power of
holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting
both of them. The party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must
be altered, therefore he knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by
the exercise of DOUBLE THINK, he also satisfies himself that reality is not
violated."----Orwell
George Orwell once pointed out that the first job of a leader
is tocreate an enemy that could strike fear into the
hearts of theelectorate. (see: False flag.)
All animals are equal, but some animals are more
equal than others.
To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle. --George
Orwell
There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could
believe in them. George Orwell (see: Vaccination.)
On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all
the time.
While the Pobble was in the water some unidentified creatures came and ate
his toes off, and when he got home his aunt remarked: It's a fact the whole
world knows, That Pobbles are happier without their toes, which is funny because
it has a meaning, and one might even say a political significance. For the whole
theory of authoritarian government is summed up in the statement that Pobbles
are happier without their toes.
Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were
altogether unhappy.
Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some
who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human
beings.
The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.
“It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you
about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.” (see:
Eye.)
"In George Orwell's 1984 one of
EngSoc's three "truths" was "Ignorance Is Strength." Have you ever noticed how
ignorant people have a great deal of strength in their convictions? Not being
able to think is, at least subconsciously, terrifying. Unable to arrive at ideas
and understandings on one's own, every idea must be held onto like a life
preserver in the sea beside a sinking ship. Every idea is as important as every
other idea because there is no mechanism to judge between them."Authority" (the
Church-School-State Establishment) is strengthened by ignorance as well. The
ignorant must rely on Authority for opinions. This keeps Authority on top. The
"conspiracy" has a vested interest in maintaining this druggie-like dependence
on Authority. It is a very short "hokey-pokey" little step from authoritarianism
to totalitarianism."----Jerry
E. Smith
"One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all
the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not
fighting."
—George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, 1938
"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in
the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or
long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will
understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in
that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled
ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian
Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the
courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even
believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and
that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free
and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the
intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not
establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the
revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is
persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."
[The Prisoner TV series] "We are not content with negative obedience, nor
even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must
be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us;
so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his
inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we
bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We
make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an
erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and
powerless it may be. Even in the instance of death we cannot permit any
deviation . . . we make the brain perfect before we blow it out."
"We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There
will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love,
except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of
triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science.
When we are omnipotent there will be no need of science. There will be no
distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no
enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But
always—do not forget this Winston—always there will be the intoxication of
power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every
moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an
enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot
stamping on a human face—forever."
"He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what
kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless
misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two
gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right,
everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over
himself. He loved Big Brother."
"Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will
be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or
joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be
hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much
disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him. ---George Orwell 
