Political Language Quotes:

The usual terminology of political language is stupid. What is 'left' and what is 'right'? Why should Hitler be 'right' and Stalin, his temporary friend, be 'left'? Who is 'reactionary' and who is 'progressive'? Reaction against an unwise policy is not to be condemned. And progress towards chaos is not to be commended.

- Ludwig von Mises

topic: Stupid, Political Language, Progress, Terminology

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

- George Orwell

source: George Orwell (1956). “The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage”, New York : Harcourt, Brace

topic: Time, Writing, Political Language, Speech And Writing, Political Speeches

But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

- George Orwell

source: "Politics and the English Language" (1946)

topic: Inspirational, Life, Political Language, Language Arts, Languages Communication

The inflated style is itself a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

- George Orwell

source: George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.282, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Latin, Fall, Political Language, Insincerity, Bad Language

[Political] prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house.

- George Orwell

source: George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.159, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Political Language, House, Together

In the political language of today, people who want to keep what they have earned are said to be greedy, while those who wish to take their earnings from them and give it to others (who will vote for them in return) show compassion.

- Thomas Sowell

topic: Compassion, Political Language, People

That generation really has to fight for a new political language, social movements, and alliances with students from other countries. They have to convince labor, parents, and the general public that the fight over higher education is a fight that benefits everyone in a sustainable democracy and not just faculty and students.

- Henry Giroux

source: "Higher Education Under Attack". Interview with C. Cryn Johannsen, www.truth-out.org. April 22, 2011.

topic: Country, Fighting, Political Language, Social Movements

We need a new political language with broader narratives. Such a language has to unravel the pervasive ideological, pedagogical, and economic dynamics of a form of economic Darwinism that now governs much of the world. This system must be demystified, politicized, and recognized for the ways in which it has come to pose a dire threat to democracy.

- Henry Giroux

source: "Higher Education Under Attack". Interview with C. Cryn Johannsen, www.truth-out.org. April 22, 2011.

topic: Political Language, Democracy, Needs, Darwinism

He who controls the past controls the future.

- Laozi

topic: Future, Past, Political Language, Power And Control, Looking To The Future

Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

- George Orwell

topic: Witty, Peace, Truth, Make Peace Not War, Solidity

Political chaos is connected with the decay of language... one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.

- George Orwell

topic: Political, Decay, Chaos, Political Language

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

- George Orwell

source: "The Freedom of the Press" (1945)

topic: Inspirational, Life, Freedom, Freedom Of Expression, Political Freedom

In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

- George Orwell

topic: Birthday, Lying, Issues, Political Issues, Political Language

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.

- George Orwell

topic: Truth, Real, Long, Insincerity, Language Words

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible... Thus, political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness... Political language [is] designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.

- George Orwell

topic: Lying, Writing, Political, Vagueness, Speech And Writing

Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage-torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians-which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

- George Orwell

topic: Color, Patriotism, Atrocities, Make Peace Not War, Atrocities Committed

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.

- George Orwell

source: Joel Garreau (2005). “Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human”, p.263, Broadway Books

topic: Life, Wisdom, Believe, Perfection And Imperfection, Political Language

A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics'. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.

- George Orwell

topic: Real, Lying, Latin, Insincerity, Long Words

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

- George Orwell

topic: Writing, Trying, Four, Political Language, Idiom

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

- George Orwell

source: Nineteen Eighty-Four pt. 1, ch. 3 (1949) See Orwell 19

topic: Dream, Time, Peace, Dystopia, Power And Control

The word right should be excluded from political language, as the word cause from the language of philosophy.

- Auguste Comte

source: Auguste Comte, John Henry Bridges (1865). “A General View of Positivism”, p.383, London, Trübner and Company

topic: Philosophy, Political, Causes, Political Language

The first problem of the media is posed by what does not get translated, or even published in the dominant political languages.

- Jacques Derrida

topic: Media, Political, Doe, Political Language

I'm very political without being political. I don't know how to speak proper political language.

- Taki Theodoracopulos

topic: Political, Language, Speak, Political Language