George Orwell on Freedom of speech
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“Take away freedom of speech, and the creative faculties dry up.”
- George Orwell, 1900s)
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
- George Orwell, 1900s)
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
- George Orwell, 1900s)
Writing amidst post-war anxieties, George Orwell's observation on the erosion of civil liberties warns against complacency towards seemingly minor infringements on freedom.
“Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.”
- George Orwell, 1900s)
“The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.”
- George Orwell, 1900s)
“At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing.”
- George Orwell, 1900s)