The most famous George Orwell quotes
The top 3 according to 127 votes from people: Big Brother is watching you. · War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. · All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.. (Updated Jan 24, 2021.)
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.
Top 12
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1
Big Brother is watching you.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Part One, chapter 1.
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2
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), the slogans of the Party.
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3
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Animal Farm (1945), chapter 10.
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4
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
"The Freedom of the Press", proposed preface to Animal Farm.
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5
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
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6
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), O'Brien.
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7
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), opening line.
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8
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
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9
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Winston's diary.
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10
Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.
"Politics and the English Language" (1946).
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11
Four legs good, two legs bad.
Animal Farm (1945), chapter 3.
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12
Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.
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.
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Comments (1)
Read 1984 in school and thought it was exaggerated. Re-read it last year. It isn't.