George Orwell Quotes

Belief is a very peculiar thing: we tend to put more store in a belief we like than a fact we hate.

The nationalist does not go on the principle of simply ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him.

One always likes to think that other countries are not like one's own.

We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.

My greatest surprise was that so much of what we think is common sense is just prejudice, and so much of what we think is scientific fact is about as scientific as the idea that the sun revolves around the earth.

Patriotism is considered to be an emotion a person ought to feel. But why? Why is it nobler to love your own country than to love someone else's?

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism is when hate for people other than your own comes first.

These antipatriotic prejudices are the abortions of folly impregnated by faction.

Values are faithfully applied to the facts before us, while ideology overrides whatever facts call theory into question.

Political or military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties

As soon as fear, hatred, jealousy and power worship are involved, the sense of reality becomes unhinged. And ... the sense of right and wrong becomes unhinged also. There is no crime, absolutely none, that cannot be condoned when ‘our’ side commits it. Even if one does not deny that the crime has happened, even if one knows that it is exactly the same crime as one has condemned in some other case, even if one admits in an intellectual sense that it is unjustified — still one cannot feel that it is wrong. Loyalty is involved, and so pity ceases to function.

I think patriotism is never racism.

Xenophobia is dangerous, but patriotism is a good thing.

Truth is the ricochet of a prejudice bouncing off a fact.

The arousing of prejudice, pity, anger, and similar emotions has nothing to do with the essential facts, but is merely a personal appeal to the man who is judging the case.

The nationalist has a broad hatred and a narrow love.

It's so hard to fight against someone who is stuck in what they believe whether you agree with it or not.

I loved my country, and I hated him.

He looked glad to be on his way and made a beeline for the exit. Just as he was out the door, however, he stuck his head back in. “I don’t mind foreigners. God save the queen!” he squeaked, and ran. Bones arched a brow. I sighed. “Didn’t hear that part? Never mind. Don’t ask.

If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that when the truth comes and knocks on our door, we won't want to let it in.

Antisemitism, for instance, is simply not the doctrine of a grown-up person.

It is doubtless impossible to approach any human problems with a mind free from bias.

It seems to me you do not care what banality a man expresses so long as he expresses it in Irish.

Immigrant: An unenlightened person who thinks one country better than another.

Opinion is the death of knowledge.