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How could you communicate with the future? It was impossible. Either the future would resemble the present in which case it would not listen to him, or it would be different from it, and his predicament would be meaningless.

George Orwell

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George Orwell
Age: 46 †
Born: 1903
Born: June 25
Died: 1950
Died: January 21
Autobiographer
Bookseller
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Poet
Screenwriter
War Correspondent
Writer
Eric Blair
P. S. Burton
Eric Arthur Blair
John Freeman
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Predicament
Either
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Impossible
Resemble
Future
Meaningless
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Communicate

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He thought with a kind of astonishment of the biological uselessness of pain and fear, the treachery of the human body which always freezes into inertia at exactly the moment when a special effort is needed.
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It is a mysterious thing, the loss of faith—as mysterious as faith itself.
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The result of this is that so-called peace propaganda is just as dishonest and intellectually disgusting as war propaganda. Like war propaganda, it concentrates on putting forward a ‘case’, obscuring the opponent’s point of view and avoiding awkward questions.
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The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.
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Records told the same tale, then the lie passed into history and became truth.
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A minority of one... the definition of insanity.
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I always disagree, however, when people end up saying that we can only combat Communism, Fascism or what not if we develop an equal fanaticism. It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one's intelligence.
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It is brought home to you...that it is only because miners sweat their guts out that superior persons can remain superior.
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All propaganda is lies, even when one is telling the truth.
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Political writing in our time consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together like the pieces of a child's Meccano set. It is the unavoidable result of self-censorship. To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox.
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The upper class desire to remain so, the middle class wish to overthrow the upper class, and the lower class want a classless system.
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In this game that we're playing, we can't win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that's all.
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If one harbours anywhere in one's mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, although in a sense known to be true, are inadmissible.
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Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.
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Sheer egoism... Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen - in short, with the whole top crust of humanity.
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What is to be expected of them is not treachery, or physcial cowardice, but stupidity, unconscious sabotage, an infallible instinct for doing the wrong thing.
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Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
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Winston was gelatinous with fatigue.
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All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
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Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.
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