1984 and Animal Farm are 2 books that I would recommend anyone read by George Orwell.
Here are a number of quotes by him or from his books – some of these should really ring true with a lot of people as sadly we do not seem to be learning a great deal and whether you believe this was a warning from him or not the increasing censorship, attacks on free speech and our lives being ruled by unelected, unaccountable people should concern most people.
I picked these from a larger list – my particular favourite ones are in bold – if you can call them that.
Lets hope humanity can some day wake up but I'm not hopeful.
Quotes
“The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.”
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.”
“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”
“Free speech is my right to say what you don’t want to hear.”
“The people will believe what the media tells them they believe.”
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.”
“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.”
“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.”
“If you want to know who rules over you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.”
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
“Real power is achieved when the ruling class controls the material essentials of life, granting and withholding them from the masses as if they were privileges.”
“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.”
“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
“The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.”
“All the papers that matter live off their advertisements, and the advertisers exercise an indirect censorship over news.”
“War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.”
“These people don’t see that if you encourage totalitarian methods, the time may come when they will be used against you instead of for you.”