Eric Arthur Blair, known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. Profoundly inspirational George Orwell 1984 quotes will challenge the way you think, and make your life worth living.
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Famous George Orwell 1984 Quotes
You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized. — 1984
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever. — 1984
The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. — 1984
There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad. — 1984
We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing…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 around 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. — 1984
Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain. — 1984
Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom. — 1984
We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how far away that future may be, there is no knowing. It might be a thousand years. At present nothing is possible except to extend the area of sanity little by little. We cannot act collectively. We can only spread our knowledge outwards from individual to individual, generation after generation. In the face of the Thought Police there is no other way. — 1984
Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. — 1984
I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane. — 1984
The best books . . . are those that tell you what you know already. — 1984
Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in ones mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. — 1984
The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth. — 1984
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. — 1984
He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past. — 1984
If you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it cant have any result whatever, youve beaten them. — 1984
Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes. — 1984
Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. — 1984
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. — 1984
The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. — 1984
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. — 1984
The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me? — 1984
Winston woke up with the word ‘Shakespeare’ on his lips. — 1984
How do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then? — 1984
War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking into the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. — 1984
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. — 1984
Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. — 1984
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. — 1984
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. — 1984
The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me? ― 1984
Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal. ― 1984
…the object of waging a war is always to be in a better position in which to wage another war. — 1984
In the face of pain there are no heroes. — 1984
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. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking into the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. — 1984
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. — 1984
Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes. ― 1984
For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance. — 1984
Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad. — 1984
Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull. — 1984
It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children. — 1984
Dont you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. — 1984
To die hating them, that was freedom. — 1984
The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed. — 1984
Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. — 1984
Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. ― 1984
The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. ― 1984
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power – pure power. — 1984
The heresy of heresies was common sense.’ — 1984
Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you. — 1984
You’re only a rebel from the waist downwards,’ he told her. — 1984
For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then? ― 1984
The best books… are those that tell you what you know already. — 1984
What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy? — 1984
Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious. — 1984
But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. — 1984
For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself. — 1984
It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. — 1984
If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself. — 1984
If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them. — 1984
The ideal set up by the Party was something huge, terrible, and glittering—a world of steel and concrete, of monstrous machines and terrifying weapons—a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting—three hundred million people all with the same face. — 1984
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. — 1984
Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed—no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull. — 1984
Big Brother is Watching You. — 1984
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood. — 1984
Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. ― 1984
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. Who controls the past ran the Party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ — 1984
Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else. — 1984
How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive? — 1984
Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time, to a time when there were still privacy, love, and friendship, and when the members of a family stood by one another without needing to know the reason. — 1984
To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone—to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink—greetings! — 1984
Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. ― 1984
History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. — 1984
But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. — 1984
War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. — 1984
If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love. — 1984
