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"Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell."
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"I am especially grateful, however, to have known the fifties, before we began to poison our own civilization - or at least before the effects of the poison began to be felt."

"If this is called civilization, then I am afraid humanity is no more civilized than the Tyrannosaurus Rex."

"The majority of India's adult and elderly population is too medieval to think as civilized, rational and progressive human beings."

"In the world of primitive savages, religion and bigotry go hand in hand. But, in the world of civilized humans, religion and reason must go hand in hand."

"Education is not the amount of information that is pushed into the brain and causes havoc there, undigested all through a lifetime. Education must be a symposium of life-building, character- making and assimilation of ideas in the pursuit of building a more harmonious, peaceful and truly civilized world."

"There is nothing more savage than modern civilization."

"Advanced weaponry, victories in battle and space travel do not an advanced species or civilization make."

"After the monkeys came down from the trees and learned to hurl sharp objects, they had had to move into caves for protection--not only from the big predatory cats but, as they began to lose their monkey fur, from the elements. Eventually, they started transposing their hunting fantasies onto cave walls in the form of pictures, first as an attempt at practical magic and later for the strange, unexpected pleasure they discovered in artistic creation. Time passed. Art came off the walls and turned into ritual. Ritual became religion. Religion spawned science. Science led to big business. And big business, if it continues on its present mindless, voracious trajectory, could land those of us lucky enough to survive its ultimate legacy back into caves again."

"Old people have wisdom but not energy; young people have energy but not wisdom; energy and wisdom must be in the same body to create a much better civilisation! To do this, we will either give energy to the old or we will give wisdom to the young and for now the latter seems a more plausible action!"

"A civilization must be judged by its standards not by its expenditure."
Explore more quotes by George Orwell

"How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?Winston thought. "By making him suffer, he said."Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own?..."

"It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning."

"Do you know why you're here? Shall I tell you why we brought you here? To cure you.To make you sane."

"Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie... a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion."

"He seemed to be lying on the bed. He could not see very well. Her youthful, rapacious face, with blackened eyebrows, leaned over him as he sprawled there."'How about my present?' she demanded, half wheedling, half menacing."Never mind that now. To work! Come here. Not a bad mouth. Come here. Come closer. Ah!"No. No use. Impossible. The will but not the way. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Try again. No. The booze, it must be. See Macbeth. One last try. No, no use. Not this evening, I'm afraid."All right, Dora, don't you worry. You'll get your two quid all right. We aren't paying by results."He made a clumsy gesture. 'Here, give us that bottle. That bottle off the dressing-table.'"Dora brought it. Ah, that's better. That at least doesn't fail."

"A story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes."

"It was a vast, luminous dream in which his whole life seemed to stretch out before him like a landscape on a summer evening after rain."

"For after all, what is there behind, except money? Money for the right kind of education, money for influential friends, money for leisure and peace of mind, money for trips to Italy. Money writes books, money sells them. Give me not righteousness, O lord, give me money, only money."
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