“ If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. ”
George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945). copy citation
| Author | George Orwell |
|---|---|
| Source | Animal Farm |
| Topic | liberty meaning |
| Date | 1945 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011h.html |
Context
“I know that the English intelligentsia have plenty of reason for their timidity and dishonesty, indeed I know by heart the arguments by which they justify themselves. But at least let us have no more nonsense about defending liberty against Fascism. If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. The common people still vaguely subscribe to that doctrine and act on it. In our country—it is not the same in all countries: it was not so in republican France, and it is not so in the USA today—it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect:”
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