by SIMON WILLS
Our current cover story is about George Orwell, and why, 65 years after his death, he’s bigger than ever. With “Animal Farm” and “1984”, Robert Butler writes in the piece, Orwell “would change the way we think about our lives”. But as well as being one of our most visionary writers, he is also one of our most quotable. Here is a sprinkling of his spikiest, funniest and most relevant maxims.
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
“Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie…”
“It is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it.”
“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.”
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
“All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.”
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