Quotes in 1984 by George Orwell

Use these quotes in 1984 by George Orwell to dazzle your friends and family.

Quote: Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

Analysis: Nobody understands this better than politicians. Did you know, for example, that Newsweek had an article about the dangers of global cooling in 1975. Of course you didn't. Politicians elected, in part, by a promise to reverse global warming along with a complicit media have buried such information and mocked anyone who opposes their environmental views. This is just one real life example of how who controls the past controls the future.

Have you ever asked yourself why schools rarely teach The Declaration of Independence or The Constitution of The United States? Do government run schools not want you to know what's in them? Perhaps I'm being paranoid and perhaps I'll be rounded up by the thought police soon. Perhaps I'm just challenging you to think more deeply about 1984.

Maybe I'm insane. Winston Smith was.

Quote: War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength

Analysis: For a brilliant analysis of this quotation, check out Irony in 1984.

Use these quotes in 1984 by George Orwell to depress your friends and family.

Quote: There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.

Analysis: I probably don't need to tell you this, but someone is probably monitoring your Internet activity right now. If you go to Google Earth, you could find a picture of your back yard. Cameras smaller than your fingernail could be mounted in your shower. Anything stupid you do in public, especially if you're famous, could be on Youtube in less than 20 minutes. Big Brother is watching.

Quote: A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.

Analysis: Sounds like a Raiders game.

Use these quotes in 1984 by George Orwell to depress your friends and family.

Quote: We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent there will be no need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. 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.

Analysis: Any time government promises to solve your problems, run. This quote begins with abolishing the orgasm and ends with a boot stamping on your face--forever. And you thought high school was bad?

Quote: He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

Analysis: How depressing!

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