Did Orwell argue: “The further society moves away from the truth, the more it hates those who say it”?

The Internet is popular on the Internet, which is often attributed to the author of famous anti -utopias. We checked the correctness of such an attribution.

As a statement by the writer George Orwell, this phrase can be found on numerous sites that collect quotes of famous people: Socratify.net, Citaty.info, Tsitaty.ru, "Quotes and aphorisms", "Pearls of thought" and others. She shared her subscribers and some enough large Pablikov on VKontakte, and in 2019 it Placed On his twitter, the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, politician Evgeny Roizman. The statement can also be found in Facebook, Instagram, Livejournal and other social networks.

We could not find this quote in stories, novels and essays of Orwell. It is not mentioned in Archive of Orwell, which was digitized by the University College of London, although this archive also includes correspondence, manuscripts and personal documents of the writer. Benedict Cooper, representative of the Orwell Society, declaredthat this quote is "erroneously associated" with a popular author.

In the course of its analysis, an authoritative factory project Snopes discoveredthat for the first time this phrase appeared only in 2009. He used the statement in his note Conservative writer Selvin Duke. This text contains several references to Orwell, the author quotes the phrase that "telling the truth is a revolutionary act." By the way, she is to Orwell Has not No relation.

When the phrase became viral on the Internet precisely as a quote from Orwell, Duke Published The text called “George Orwell steals my work”, in which the public drew attention to the true authorship of the expression. In 2021 Duke confirmed This position is in the commentary factor from Reuters.

Photo on the cover: © Vernon Richards / Pushkin House

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Snopes. DID George Orwell Say This About Societies that ‘Drift from the Truth’?
2. Reuters. FACT Check-Quote MISATTRIBUTED to George Orwell ABOUT SOCIETY DRIFTING FROM THE TREETH CONTINESS To CIRCULATENLINE
3. University College London. Orwell Archive
4. Did George Orwell argue that “during the time of universal lies, telling the truth is extremism”?
5. Arzamas. 12 quotes from George Orwell's diaries