Virtue consisted in winning: it consisted in being bigger, stronger, handsomer, richer, more popular, more elegant, more unscrupulous than other people—in dominating them, bullying them, making them suffer pain, making them look foolish, getting the better of them in every way. Life was hierarchical and whatever happened was right. There were the strong, who deserved to win and always did win, and there were the weak, who deserved to lose and always did lose, everlastingly.

About 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

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

—George Orwell

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

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

—George Orwell

Throughout recorded time… there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other. The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable.

—George Orwell

history society wealth class division

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

—George Orwell

politics speech defense

More quotations tagged with “winning”

You can't expect to hit the jackpot if you don't put a few nickels in the machine.

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If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?

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I hear your insults and plan to silence them with my victory.

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You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.

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I think the greatest legacy of the 1960s was the general feeling that not only can you fight the powers that be, but you can win.

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History

4 Jul 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Virtue consisted in winning: it consisted in being bigger, stronger, handsomer, richer, more popular, more elegant, more unscrupulous than other people — in dominating them, bullying them, making them suffer pain, making them look foolish, getting the better of them in every way. Life was hierarchical and whatever happened was right. There were the strong, who deserved to win and always did win, and there were the weak, who deserved to lose and always did lose, everlastingly.