Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future conquers the past.

It was a cold, bright day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.

The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Orthodoxy is Unconsciousness.

People sleep peacably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad.

Big Brother is watching you.

To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.

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 solidity to pure wind.

Freedom is the right to say two plus two make four. If granted, all else follows.

Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

At age 50, every man has the face he deserves.

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.

The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.

In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.

The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being but to remind him that he is already degraded.

From the totalitarian point of view, history is something to be created rather than learned.

Orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

He who controls the past controls the future.

An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.

Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is a thing that human beings must avoid.

In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion: the more intelligent, the less sane.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time.