"The important thing is to discover which individuals are honest and which are not, and the usual blanket accusation merely makes this more difficult. The atmosphere of hatred in which controversy is conducted blinds people to considerations of this kind. To admit that an opponent might be both honest and intelligent is felt to be intolerable. It is more immediately satisfying to shout that he is a fool or a scoundrel, or both, than to find out what he is really like. It is this habit of mind, among other things, that has made political prediction in our time so remarkably unsuccessful."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"As I Please," Tribune (8 December 1944)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"The Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals, by the applicat…"
"Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laug…"
"By 'patriotism' I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best…"
"In England, a century of strong government has developed what O. Henry called the stern and rugged fear of the police…"
"Spending the night out of doors has nothing attractive about it in London, especially for a poor, ragged, undernouris…"
"And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the pa…"
"This means no more than vae victis - woe to the creed that is not backed by machine-guns!"
"To the well-fed it seems cowardly to complain of tight boots, because the well-fed live in a different world-a world …"
"What is needed is the right to print what one believes to be true, without having to fear bullying or blackmail from …"
"[T]here is something wrong with a regime that requires a pyramid of corpses every few years."