# The most famous George Orwell quotes

From "Big Brother is watching you" and "All animals are equal" to "If liberty means anything at all": George Orwell's most quoted lines, with the book or essay they come from.

- 127 votes · 12 items
- Jan 24, 2021 · Jericho Torres
- https://even.best/en/l/4891/the-most-famous-george-orwell-quotes

## Top 12

1. **Big Brother is watching you.** (17 · ▲18 ▼1) — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Part One, chapter 1.
2. **War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.** (13 · ▲15 ▼2) — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), the slogans of the Party.
3. **All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.** (9 · ▲11 ▼2) — Animal Farm (1945), chapter 10.
4. **If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.** (8 · ▲10 ▼2) — "The Freedom of the Press", proposed preface to Animal Farm.
5. **Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.** (7 · ▲9 ▼2) — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
6. **If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), O'Brien.
7. **It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), opening line.
8. **Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.** (4 · ▲7 ▼3) — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
9. **Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.** (4 · ▲6 ▼2) — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Winston's diary.
10. **Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — "Politics and the English Language" (1946).
11. **Four legs good, two legs bad.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Animal Farm (1945), chapter 3.
12. **Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.** (2 · ▲6 ▼4) — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.