Orwell's short and intense life has for years borne witness to some of those verities of which we were already aware. Parties and churches and states cannot be honest, but individuals can. Real books cannot be written by machines or committees. The truth is not always easy to discern, but a lie can and must be called by its right name. And the imagination, like certain wild animals, as Orwell himself once put it, will not breed in captivity. Actually, that last metaphor is beautiful but inaccurate. Even in the most dire conditions, there is a human will to resist coercion. We must believe that even now in North Korea, there are ideas alive inside human brains that were not put there by any authority.
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- Attributed to
- Christopher Hitchens
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Photo: Michal Klajban · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source · Portrait: stepher from i can't believe i actually live here, alabama (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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More from Christopher Hitchens & related wisdom
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know-and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me-has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.
Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.
