George Orwell Quotes about Reality

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Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.

Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.

George Orwell

Truth, Reality, Mind

George Orwell (1963). “George Orwell's 1984”, p.72, Dramatic Publishing

The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

George Orwell

Faith, Believe, Reality

After World War II; quoted in the London Financial Times, 13 May 2003.

They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening

George Orwell

Reality, Tyrants, Events

George Orwell (2003). “1984”, Plume Books

Sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

George Orwell

Reality, Bumps, Belief

After World War II; quoted in the London Financial Times, 13 May 2003.

We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull.

George Orwell

Reality, Skulls, Mind

George Orwell (1983). “1984”, p.569, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.

George Orwell

Party, Reality, Views

Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.

George Orwell

Mistake, Party, Reality

George Orwell (2014). “1984”, p.189, Arcturus Publishing

You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Paty, which is collective and immortal.

George Orwell

Mistake, Believe, Reality

George Orwell (1961). “1984”

Winston worked in the RECORDS DEPARTMENT (a single branch of the Ministry of Truth) editing and writing for The Times. He dictated into a machine called a Speakwrite. Winston would receive articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, in Newspeak, rectify. If, for example, the Ministry of Plenty forecast a surplus, and in reality the result was grossly less, Winston's job was to change previous versions so the old version would agree with the new one.

George Orwell

Jobs, Writing, Reality

The past is a curious thing. It's with you all the time. I suppose an hour never passes without your thinking of things that happened ten or twenty years ago, and yet most of the time it's got no reality, it's just a set of facts that you've learned, like a lot of stuff in a history book. Then some chance sight or sound or smell, especially smell, sets you going, and the past doesn't merely come back to you, you're actually IN the past. It was like that at this moment.

George Orwell

Book, Past, Reality

George Orwell (1976). “The Penguin complete novels of George Orwell”

Progress and reaction have both turned out to be swindles. Seemingly, there is nothing left but quietism - robbing reality of its terrors by simply submitting to it.

George Orwell

Reality, Progress, Literature

George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.250, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt