Society and the World

A people that elect corrupt politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims . . . but accomplices.”—George Orwell, English author and essayist (1903 – 1950), attributed “He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

A people that elect corrupt politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims . . . but accomplices.”—George Orwell, English author and essayist (1903 – 1950), attributed “He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism: ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or any other controlling private power.

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism: ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or any other controlling private power.

No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.

Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world and ignorance of mankind.

Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world and ignorance of mankind.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

Real freedom is freedom from fear, and unless you can live free from fear you cannot live a dignified human life.

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

In all my work what I try to say is that as human beings we are more alike than we are unalike.

As those who believe in the visibility of ghosts can easily see them, so it is always easy to see repulsive qualities in those we despise and hate.

The history of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and the agreed-upon myths of its conquerors.

The history of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and the agreed-upon myths of its conquerors.

Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.

Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.

The majority has the might—more’s the pity—but it hasn’t the right. . . . The minority is always right.

The majority has the might—more’s the pity—but it hasn’t the right. . . . The minority is always right.

If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.

Hatred is the vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their littlenesses, and make it the pretext of base tyrannies.

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group’s greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and airtight roles within the family.

However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group’s greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and airtight roles within the family.