 |
|
PHOTO SOURCE: http://izquotes.com/quote/139782
|
QUOTE: “We sleep peaceably in our
beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.”
This has commonly been attributed to Orwell but has
not been found in any of his writings. Quote Investigator found the earliest
known appearance in a 1993 Washington Times essay by Richard Grenier: "As George
Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because
rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." The absence of
quotation marks indicates Grenier was using his own words to convey Orwell's
opinion; thus it may have originated as a paraphrase of his statement in "Notes
on Nationalism" (May 1945): "Those who
"abjure" violence can only do so because others are committing
violence on their behalf." There are also similar sentiments expressed
in an essay which Orwell wrote on Rudyard Kipling, quoting from one of
Kipling's poems: "Yes, making mock o' uniforms that guard you while you
sleep." In the same essay Orwell also wrote of Kipling: "He sees
clearly that men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less
civilized, are there to guard and feed them."
AUTHOR: Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his
pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist
and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice,
opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism.
Commonly
ranked as one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century and
as one of the most important chroniclers of English culture of his generation,
Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He
is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and
the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which together (as of 2009)
have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author. His
book Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the
Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his numerous essays on politics,
literature, language, and culture. In 2008, The Times ranked him second
on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Orwell's
work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian
— descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices — has entered
the language together with several of his neologisms, including cold war,
Big Brother, thought police, Room 101, doublethink,
and thoughtcrime.
No comments:
Post a Comment