George Orwell

1903–1950 · English novelist, essayist & journalist

George Orwell (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) was an English writer whose Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) made him one of the 20th century’s most-quoted authors on power and politics. In his 1942 essay on Kipling he did argue that the civilized depend on rougher men to guard them — but he never wrote the polished “rough men stand ready” sentence. Being a magnet for pointed political one-liners, he is among the most misquoted writers online.

Traced to source

3 quotes we’ve traced to George Orwell

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf”

Disputed

“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them”

Disputed

“To enforce the lies of the present, it is necessary to erase the truths of the past”

Disputed

Not actually George Orwell

Often misattributed to George Orwell

Famous lines widely pinned on George Orwell that we’ve traced to someone else.

“The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it”

actually Selwyn Duke

On the research bench

Commonly pinned on George Orwell — under review

3 lines flagged as pinned on George Orwell and queued for a full source trace — not yet verified.

“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”

Disputed

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Disputed

“Within any important issue, there are always aspects no one wishes to discuss.”

Disputed

Did they really say it?

Thought George Orwell said something else?

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