Eric Arthur Blair, popularly known by his pen name George Orwell, was born on June 25, 1903. The English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic was well known for his awareness on social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and for his outspoken support towards democratic socialism. An author of bestselling books and novels, including Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia, Orwell’s work and words remain influential and relevant even in today’s world.
On the 116th birth anniversary of the great British writer, here are some quotes by George Orwell that remain relevant even in the present time:
1. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
2. The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
3. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
4. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
5. People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
6. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.
7. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.
8. A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices.
9. In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane.
10. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
11. There is something wrong with a regime that requires a pyramid of corpses every few years.
12. Threats to freedom of speech, writing, and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect, and unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.
13. A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.
14. Political language — and with variations, this is true of all political parties, from conservatives to anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind.
15. The fallacy is to believe that under a dictatorial government you can be free inside.
