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.
George OrwellRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nationalistic sentiments can distort our perception of truth.
George Orwell highlights how loyalty or animosity towards a nation can cloud one's judgment and hinder the acceptance of certain truths. This quote suggests that strong nationalistic feelings can lead individuals to reject facts that contradict their beliefs or allegiances, thus illustrating the dangers of letting emotion overshadow reason and objective understanding.
Themes
NationalismTruthJudgmentLoyaltyHatred
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on globalization, this quote could illustrate the challenges of accepting different perspectives.
More from George Orwell
All quotes →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
I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.
George OrwellRead
Similar quotes
The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your brains and in your hands, wherever you go... It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhere else.
Barbara KingsolverRead
If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible what was the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men had forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.'
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
People talk of “social outcasts.” The words apparently denote the miserable losers of the world, the vicious ones, but I feel as though I have been a “social outcast” from the moment I was born. If ever I meet someone society has designated as an outcast, I invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness.
Osamu DazaiRead
Sympathy is what you have for someone after they die, pity you have for someone when they don't have a date to the biggest dance of the year. Empathy is what I do to you when you judge me. Envy is having pity on yourself. Can you discern the rest for yourself?
Mahatma GandhiRead
Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion, and one would think-though the connection is not a fully demonstrable one-that this is why they seem so uninterested in sending fellow humans to hell.
Christopher HitchensRead
I . . . am always half afraid of finding a clever novel too clever--& of finding my own story & my own people all forestalled.
Jane AustenRead