George Orwell: Frasi in inglese (pagina 9)

“He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.”

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George Orwell libro Shooting an Elephant

Origine: Shooting an Elephant

“This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.”

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George Orwell libro La fattoria degli animali

Origine: Animal Farm

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

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George Orwell

Possibly a paraphrase of Bertrand Russell in My Philosophical Development (1959): "This is one of those views which are so absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them." It is similar in meaning to Orwell's line from Notes on Nationalism (1945): "One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool." However, Russell was commenting not on politics, as Orwell was, but on some philosophers and their ideas about language.
Misattributed
Variante: Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.

“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”

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George Orwell libro 1984

Origine: 1984

“To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.”

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George Orwell

"In Front of Your Nose," Tribune (22 March 1946)

“The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.”

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George Orwell libro 1984

Origine: 1984

“The greatest enemy of clear language is insincerity.”

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George Orwell

“If you canthat staying human is worth while, even when it can't have any result whatever, you've beaten them.”

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George Orwell libro 1984

Origine: 1984

“Let's face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.”

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George Orwell libro La fattoria degli animali

Origine: Animal Farm

“What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?”

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George Orwell libro 1984

Origine: 1984

“In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an aeroplane they had to make four.”

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George Orwell libro 1984

Origine: 1984

“Every war, when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defence against a homicidal maniac.”

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George Orwell

“We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.”

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George Orwell

"In Front of Your Nose" http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/nose/english/e_nose, Tribune (22 March 1946)
Contesto: The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.