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.
From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:_x000D_ _x000D_ WAR IS PEACE_x000D_ _x000D_ FREEDOM IS SLAVERY_x000D_ _x000D_ IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The slogans illustrate the contradictory nature of the Party's propaganda, highlighting the manipulation of truth.
George Orwell's quote presents the paradoxical slogans of the Party in his dystopian novel '1984'. Each slogan represents a twisted form of reality where war is maintained to ensure peace, individual freedom is curtailed to achieve safety, and ignorance is exalted as a source of strength. These slogans reflect how totalitarian regimes use language to distort facts and control public perception, prompting readers to question the nature of truth and reality in society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about totalitarianism and its impact on society.
More from George Orwell
All quotes →The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
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.
Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.
As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.
It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.
Similar quotes
If we leave our smells behind us when we leave a room, surely something of our souls must remain when we leave this life?" - Qyburn
The angel personifies something new arising from the deep unconscious.
Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death - ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life.
I don't want to not be African. The goal is to live in a world where my race doesn't limit my access, where I can see myself represented in the highest level of society without any limitation.
Human life must always be defended from its beginning in the womb and must be recognised as a gift of God that guarantees the future of humanity.
People who care about animals tend to care about people. They don't care about animals to the exclusion of people. Caring is not a finite resource and, even more than that, it's like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.