31 Orwell Quotes for You to Enjoy

Orwell's '1984' convinced me, rightly or wrongly, that Marxism was only a quantum leap away from tyranny. By contrast, Huxley's 'Brave New World' suggested that the totalitarian systems of the future might be subservient and ingratiating. J. G. Ballard

Future Me World Tyranny Rightly Systems Totalitarian Huxley Only Marxism New Wrongly Leap Quantum Quantum Leap Contrast Brave Subservient Brave New World New World Might Convinced Away Orwell Suggested

Orwell wasn't right about where society was in 1984. We haven't turned into that sort of surveillance society. But that may be, at least in small part, because of his book. The notion that ubiquitous surveillance and state manipulation of the media is evil is deeply engrained in us. Ramez Naam

Read with care, George Orwell's diaries, from the years 1931 to 1949, can greatly enrich our understanding of how Orwell transmuted the raw material of everyday experience into some of his best-known novels and polemics. Christopher Hitchens

Experience Care Understanding Everyday Enrich Our Some Raw Raw Material Read How Material George His Years Diaries Greatly Novels Orwell

Think about George Orwell's three-minute hate from the novel '1984' and how that left everyone sort of exhausted and able to live their boring humdrum lives. If our lives are going to continue being unfulfilled and boring, perhaps we do need some sort of short-term violent chaos incorporated into them, to make them more palatable. Chuck Palahniuk

Hate Exhausted Live Think Chaos Everyone Our Our Lives Boring Able Some About More Perhaps Make Sort How George Continue Left Going Being Unfulfilled Short-Term Them Novel Lives Orwell Violent Incorporated Need Humdrum

Education Satire Entertainment Culture Made Example Animals Propaganda Examples Purposes Over For Example Sort Duck Cover George George Orwell Forget Donald Mickey Mouse Walt Walt Disney Human Being Laid Us Disney Popular Popular Culture Ills Population Livestock Societal Orwell

George Orwell is half journalist, half fiction writer. I'm 100 percent fiction writer... I don't want to write messages. I want to write good stories. I think of myself as a political person, but I don't state my political messages to anybody. Haruki Murakami

George Orwell's science-fiction classic 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' wasn't a failure because the future it predicted failed to come to pass. Rather, it was a resounding success because it helped us prevent that future. Robert J. Sawyer

Success Future Failure Resounding Nineteen Classic Rather Prevent Failed Come Because Pass George Predicted Us Helped Orwell

For much of the twentieth century, 1984 was a year that belonged to the future - a strange, gray future at that. Then it slid painlessly into the past, like any other year. Big Brother arrived and settled in, though not at all in the way George Orwell had imagined. James Gleick

Future Strange Big Year Past Other Settled Way Though Brother Had Like Big Brother Arrived George George Orwell Any Century Then Much Twentieth Twentieth Century Gray Orwell Belonged Imagined

Imagine a world without art: it's George Orwell's nightmare! Sean Scully

Art World Without George Orwell Imagine Nightmare

'1984' is terrifyingly relevant. It generates a political conversation, but it's an exciting piece of theatre. Every day, there are things to be spawned from Orwell's mind, whether it's in England or America, terrorist-related or government-related. Tom Sturridge

Day Conversation Theatre Every Day Political Mind Every Relevant Exciting Piece America Whether Spawned England Things Orwell

I was obsessed with George Orwell for years. I remember going to the town library and having to put in interlibrary loan requests to get the compilation of his BBC radio pieces. I had to get everything he ever wrote. Jill Lepore

Library Remember Loan Everything Having Had He Put Obsessed Town Pieces Wrote George His Years George Orwell Get Going Requests Radio Ever Orwell Compilation

What is it that unites, on the left of British politics, George Orwell, Billy Bragg, Gordon Brown and myself? An understanding that identity and a sense of belonging need to be linked to our commitment to nationhood and a modern form of patriotism. David Blunkett

For many, the recent disclosure of massive warrantless surveillance programs of all citizens by the Obama administration has brought back memories of George Orwell's '1984.' Another Orwell book seems more apt as the White House and its allies try to contain the scandal: 'Animal Farm.' Jonathan Turley

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It wasn't until my teenage years that a book really left a mark, and that was George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four.' It was on the syllabus at school when I was about 16, and I went on to read more of his books. It was the height of the Cold War, so a lot of the messages really resonated at the time. John Niven

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With the Patriot Bill in place, the NSA no longer needed to get a warrant from a judge to tap into anybody's electronic information. A Surveillance State that would have boggled the mind of Orwell was born. Jay Parini

Judge Mind State Would Born Longer Tap Surveillance Get Anybody Patriot Information Place Bill Warrant Electronic Orwell Needed

To be the windowpane - this is basically a bastardization of what Orwell said about good writing - so you can get the conversation going and frame it the right way and make sure people aren't lost. And then you let the candidates illuminate the issues themselves. John Dickerson

Good You Conversation People Writing Lost Frame Way Right Way About Good Writing Make Sure Said Issues Get Going Candidates Themselves Then Illuminate Right Orwell Basically

In 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only colour to be found was in the propaganda posters. Such is the case in North Korea. Images of Kim Il-sung are depicted in vivid colours. Rays of yellow and orange emanate from his face: he is the sun. Barbara Demick

World Face Emanate Sun Kim Posters Vivid Propaganda Case Only Colour Colours He Rays Wrote Korea George His George Orwell Yellow North North Korea Orange Where Depicted Found Images Orwell

My father had inklings of my cultural aspirations. He would take me to the library, things like that. But he wasn't one of those dads who had read George Orwell and was a member of the Communist party. We had no books at home. Gary Kemp

Home Me Library Father Party Books Those Member Would Take Had He Like Read George Cultural George Orwell Communist Communist Party Aspirations Who Dads Things Orwell

If you rely on a more conventional understanding of the term 'left-wing' as being associated with gradations of socialism in the emancipation of the working class, the Leap Manifesto looks something more along the lines of what the great British socialist and essayist George Orwell was on about in 'The Road to Wigan Pier' in 1937. Terry Glavin

Great You Class Socialism Understanding Emancipation About Something More Rely Road Term Along Leap Looks George Lines George Orwell Left-Wing Essayist Being Conventional Manifesto Working Working-Class Socialist Orwell British Associated