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At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.
George Orwell
- Life
- 1903-1950
- Occupations
- writer, war correspondent, poet
- Notable works
- The Road to Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
Orwell's essays gave English some of its most durable political vocabulary, but his most-shared quote -- 'In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act' -- appears nowhere in his published writing and is flagged by Orwell scholars as apocryphal. The verified lines from Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, and 'Politics and the English Language' need no embellishment.
Four legs good, two legs bad.
George Orwell
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.
George Orwell
If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.
George Orwell
If you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself. You must know all the while that it is there, but until it is needed you must never let it emerge into your consciousness in any shape that could be given a name.
George Orwell
Inequality was the price of civilization.
George Orwell
It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
George Orwell
You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
George Orwell
You had to live–did live, from habit that became instinct–in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
George Orwell