George Orwell Quotes

Civilizations die from suicide, not murder

civilization is a transient sickness.

Sedentary culture is the goal of civilization. It means the end of its lifespan and brings about its corruption.

Progress, this great heresy of decay.

America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization.

The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.

I do think there is this danger that our society has made its peace with decline. I'd like to jolt them out of their complacency a little bit.

Absorption in ease is one of the most reliable signs of present or impending decay.

When the juices of trees have no means of escape, they clot and rot in them, making the trees hollow and good for nothing.

Civilization does not have to perish. The brutes are winning only by default.

The stationary condition is the beginning of the end

A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.

Change is almost always negative. Things degenerate.

Civilization in certain respects is as inadequate as it was a thousand years ago.

Civilization is a disease which is almost invariably fatal.

What does civilization mean to you, and what would its ending bring to the world?

Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men.

Primitiveness and civilization are degrees of the same thing. If civilization has an opposite, it is war.

Our sires' age was worse than our grandsires'. We their sons are more worthless than they: so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.

Taking it easy is often the prelude to backsliding. Comfort precedes collapse.

Mean and mighty, rotting Together, have one dust.

America is on her deathbed.

Civilization begins with distillation

Were civilization itself to be estimated by some of its results, it would seem perhaps better for what we call the barbarous part of the world to remain unchanged.

Civilization is perhaps approaching one of those long winters that overtake it from time to time. Romantic Christendom - picturesque, passionate, unhappy episode - may be coming to an end. Such a catastrophe would be no reason for despair.