While many know him for his more famous works, like 1984 and Animal Farm, the British writer George Orwell wrote a whole bunch of other stuff, writing a total of 14 books, as well as a countless number of essays. He may be best known for his political commentary, as well as his being an inspiration for the show Big Brother, but he sure had some witty and thoughtful sayings laced in-between. Here are 10 of his quotes that make the top of my list:
10. It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out.
Taken from Orwell's 1933 book Down and Out in Paris and London, it's easy to see why Orwell's whole idea of "down and out" would be so iconic. Added to his ironic syntax, it's a quote that gets you reassessing the true pleasures of life.
9. Words are such feeble things.
Pulled from The Road to Wigan Pier, this quote is also ironic...considering he's a writer.
8. The best books...are those that tell you what you know already.
One of the many thought-provoking ideas from 1984, Orwell provides us with many antitheses such as these that come a little too close to our everyday lives.
7. I watched him with some interest, for it was the first time that I had seen a person whose profession was telling lies - unless one counts journalists.
More or less, Orwell really hates journalists in Homage to Catalonia, not to mention in the rest of his works. Even if he doesn't hate them, he talks about them quite a lot.
6. Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
Yet another quote from 1984, this one takes a jab straight for the heart.
5. When you are on a sinking ship, your thoughts will be about sinking ships.
This one seems a bit more obvious, but still interesting. Used as an explanation in his essay "Writers and Leviathan" for why all of the writers of his day were writing about politics, this quote makes you reconsider what your thoughts are shaped around, or what your "sinking ship" really is.
4. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.
Quotes about lunatics and madness are the best quotes. Circa 1949. From 1984.
3. The stars are a free show; it don't cost anything to use your eyes.
This one is my personal favorite. Spoken by one of Orwell's favorite vagabonds that he meets along his journey in Down and Out in Paris and London, this quote is really reminiscent of the whole, "The best things in life are free."
2. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Iconic. Taken from Orwell's 1945 novel Animal Farm, this quote pretty much sums up one of the main points of the book as a criticism of a Communist society that still involves the oppression of the lower classes.
1. I believe it is better even from the point of view of survival to fight and be conquered than to surrender without fighting.
Reminiscent of the whole, "Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all," this quote from Orwell's 1943 essay "Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War" can give you all of the feels, not only about Orwell's life and times but about your life and present day as well. Orwell was adamant for the case of the lower classes, for equality and Socialism and the like. His wish for a better world may have been beaten down time and time again, but he continued dreaming and fighting and writing. In the same way, we just have to keep going with our own struggles in life. Dreaming and fighting and writing. It's better than just giving up.
