Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

—George Orwell

wisdom intelligence perception generations age

About George Orwell

Portrait of George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both authoritarian communism and fascism), and support of democratic...

More quotations from George Orwell

The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun.

—George Orwell

war bombs lies earth sun

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

—George Orwell

peace violence civil society

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

—George Orwell

writing meaning art criticism

A thousand influences constantly press a working man down into a passive role. He does not act; he is acted upon. He feels himself the slave of mysterious authority and has a firm conviction that “they” will never allow him to do this, that, and the other. Once when I was hop-picking I asked the sweated pickers (they earn something under sixpence an hour) why they did not form a union. I was told immediately that “they” would never allow it. Who were “they”? I asked. Nobody seemed to know, but evidently “they” were omnipotent.

—George Orwell

power poverty powerlessness they

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

—George Orwell

wisdom intelligence perspective aging generations

More quotations tagged with “age”

Someday we’ll run into each other again, I know it. Maybe I’ll be older and smarter and just plain better.

—Gabrielle Zevin in Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

relationships learning intelligence time age

Middle age is when a guy keeps turning off lights for economical rather than romantic reasons.

—Lillian Gordy Carter

conservation economics age romance lights

Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle.

Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.

—Sydney J. Harris

knowledge age arrogance

As we grow older, our bodies get shorter and our anecdotes longer.

—Robert Quillen

stories age body

History

7 Apr 2014 Added