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.
George OrwellRead
He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the profound feelings of isolation and the weight of time, where neither the past nor the future offers comfort.
In this quote by George Orwell, the sense of solitude is emphasized through the notion that the past is no longer relevant and the future is filled with uncertainty. It captures the human experience of being present in a moment that feels entirely disconnected from what has come before and what might come next, highlighting the existential weight that can accompany such feelings.
Themes
SolitudeTimeExistentialismUncertaintyIsolation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about mental health and feelings of loneliness.
More from George Orwell
All quotes βThe 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.
George OrwellRead
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.
George OrwellRead
Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.
George OrwellRead
As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.
George OrwellRead
It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.
George OrwellRead
Similar quotes
There is just as much evil in all of us as there is good. We're all continuously guilty, even if we're not doing it intentionally to be evil. Here we are sitting in luxury hotels, living it up on the the backs of others in the third world. We all have a guilty conscience, but we do very little about it.
Michael HanekeRead
We have for too long been taught that the sight of a man speaking to himself is a sign of eccentricity or madness; we are no longer at all habituated to our own voices, except in conversation or from within the safety of a shouting crowd.
Teju ColeRead
All sixteen mentioned her jutting ribs, the insubstantiality of her thighs, and one, who went up to the roof with Lux during a warm winter rain, told us how the basins of her collarbones collected water.
Jeffrey EugenidesRead
A critique does not consist in saying that things aren't good the way they are. It consists in seeing on just what type of assumptions, of familiar notions, of established and unexamined ways of thinking the accepted practices are based... To do criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy.
Michel FoucaultRead
From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not.
LaoziRead
Do not keep company with a fool for as we can see he is a two-legged beast. Like an unseen thorn he pierces the heart with his sharp words.
ChanakyaRead