Quotationary
Book

Modern

George Orwell

1903–1950

Eric Blair, on language and the state

Who controls the past is O’Brien, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, teaching Winston how a state edits memory. The essay on politics and the English language is Orwell in his own voice, angry at metaphors that make murder sound like management.

In the canon

  1. Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.Politics and the English Language
  2. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.Nineteen Eighty-Four

All voices