Eric Arthur Blair, who used to write under the pen name George Orwell, was a renowned English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His works highlight lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
Orwell is well known for his dystopian novel "Ninteen Eighty-Four" (1949) and the allegorical novella "Animal Farm" (1945). His work continues to influence popular and political culture and has given rise to a new term – Orwellian, which refers to totalitarian and authoritarian social practices.
He was born on June 25, 1903, and as the world remembers the iconic author on his 113th birth anniversary, here are some of his most popular quotes:
"Happiness can exist only in acceptance."
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
"Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it."
"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
"Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception."
"It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning."
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men."
Source: Brainy Quote