Quotes (Animal Farm)

This section explores the Key Quotes in Animal Farm by George Orwell. Orwell’s Animal Farm is rich with symbolism, irony, and concise, impactful language. The following key quotes highlight crucial themes, character traits, and turning points in the novella, as well as Orwell’s critique of power and corruption.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Context: This is the final revision of the Seven Commandments.

Significance: The ultimate betrayal of the original ideals of the Rebellion. Orwell demonstrates how language can be twisted to justify inequality and oppression. It reflects the hypocrisy and manipulation of the ruling class (the pigs) in a totalitarian state.

"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing."

Speaker: Old Major

Context: Old Major’s speech, outlining the philosophy of Animalism.

Significance: This quote criticises human exploitation of animals (and, allegorically, the working class). It sets up the justification for the Rebellion, highlighting humans’ parasitic relationship with the animals, symbolising the bourgeoisie’s exploitation of the proletariat.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Context: The novella’s final sentence, after the pigs have become indistinguishable from the humans.

Significance: Orwell’s powerful closing statement reveals the full extent of the pigs' corruption. It shows that the leaders of the Rebellion have become as oppressive and tyrannical as their former human oppressors.

"Four legs good, two legs bad."

Speaker: The sheep

Context: This simplistic slogan is introduced early as part of the animals' propaganda.

Significance: A reductionist maxim that oversimplifies Animalism, representing how complex ideologies are often reduced to catchy slogans in propaganda. It is later altered to "Four legs good, two legs better," further illustrating the manipulation of language and ideology to suit the ruling class.

"I will work harder."

Speaker: Boxer

Context: Boxer’s personal motto, repeated throughout the novella.

Significance: Symbolises the working class’s blind faith in the system and willingness to endure hardship. Boxer’s loyalty and strength are exploited by the pigs, and his ultimate betrayal reflects Orwell’s critique of how the working class is manipulated and discarded.

"Napoleon is always right."

Speaker: Boxer

Context: Boxer adopts this slogan after Napoleon takes control.

Significance: Highlights Boxer’s unquestioning loyalty and the blind obedience that totalitarian regimes depend upon. It reflects how propaganda and loyalty to leadership can suppress critical thought.

"Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend."

Context: The original principles of Animalism, introduced by Old Major.

Significance: This early rule summarises the binary thinking that characterises the animals' initial ideology. However, it becomes ironic as the pigs themselves begin walking on two legs by the end, becoming the very enemies they originally denounced.

"It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples."

Speaker: Squealer

Context: Squealer’s justification for the pigs taking the best resources for themselves.

Significance: Orwell demonstrates how those in power manipulate others by claiming their privileges are necessary for the common good. It reflects the propaganda techniques used by corrupt leaders to maintain control over the masses.

"The only good human being is a dead one."

Speaker: Snowball

Context: Snowball says this during a discussion about how to defend Animal Farm.

Significance: Reflects the extremism of revolutionary ideology. It suggests that Snowball, like Napoleon, is willing to adopt violent, uncompromising tactics to maintain the Rebellion. The quote also foreshadows the pigs’ increasing resemblance to humans.

"No animal shall kill any other animal."

Context: One of the Seven Commandments of Animalism.

Significance: A key tenet of the animals' new society, later amended to "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause." The modification allows the pigs to justify their purges, showing how the pigs gradually betray the original principles of the Rebellion.

"The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others."

Context: Early in the novel, after the Rebellion.

Significance: Orwell criticises how those in power often avoid labour and exploit the working class. The pigs’ growing detachment from the hard labour of the other animals mirrors the behaviour of elite ruling classes in capitalist and totalitarian systems.

"Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back!"

Speaker: Squealer

Context: Squealer constantly uses this argument to justify the pigs’ privileges.

Significance: Reflects how fear is used by totalitarian regimes to control and manipulate the populace. The threat of a return to the old order keeps the animals submissive and prevents rebellion against the pigs’ leadership.

"All men are enemies. All animals are comrades."

Speaker: Old Major

Context: Old Major’s speech.

Significance: Early ideological statement of Animalism. However, as the pigs become more corrupt, this binary worldview collapses, and the distinction between humans and pigs becomes meaningless.

"The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white."

Context: Early description of Squealer.

Significance: Highlights Squealer’s role as a manipulator of truth and a master of propaganda. Orwell critiques how political regimes rely on skilled rhetoricians to twist facts and maintain power.

"Several of them would have protested if they could have found the right arguments."

Context: After the pigs move into the farmhouse.

Significance: Reflects the animals’ growing but inarticulate discontent with the pigs’ behaviour. Orwell shows how the lack of education and critical thinking among the masses allows oppressive regimes to thrive unchallenged.

"Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on — that is, badly."

Speaker: Benjamin

Context: Benjamin’s response to the debate over the windmill.

Significance: Benjamin represents the cynical, disengaged intellectual who recognises the futility of both leadership and rebellion. His quote reflects the inevitability of suffering under any regime, whether capitalist or communist.

"Napoleon had now stated categorically that Snowball was Jones’s agent from the very beginning."

Context: After Snowball’s exile.

Significance: Napoleon rewrites history to discredit Snowball, mirroring Stalin’s erasure of Trotsky from Soviet history. Orwell critiques the use of propaganda and revisionist history to maintain power and control over the narrative.

"They were always cold, and usually hungry as well."

Context: Description of life on the farm after the pigs take over.

Significance: Reflects the failure of the Rebellion to bring about the better life the animals hoped for. Orwell highlights how the working class remains oppressed under totalitarian regimes, despite promises of improvement.

"The dogs promptly tore their throats out."

Context: During Napoleon’s purge of supposed traitors.

Significance: Orwell’s depiction of political purges in totalitarian regimes. The violence reflects the betrayal of the idealistic principles of the Rebellion and the establishment of a regime based on fear and brutality, much like Stalin’s purges.

"Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer — except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs."

Context: Towards the end of the novella, as the pigs become indistinguishable from humans.

Significance: Highlights the deep inequality that has developed on the farm, with the pigs and dogs (the ruling class and enforcers) enjoying wealth and privilege while the other animals (the working class) remain poor and oppressed. Orwell critiques how revolutions can result in a new elite, as exploitative as the one they replaced.

"THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS” 

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.

3. No animal shall wear clothes.

4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.

5. No animal shall drink alcohol.

6. No animal shall kill any other animal.

7. All animals are equal."

To Summarise:

These quotes from Animal Farm encapsulate Orwell's key themes of power, corruption, and the betrayal of revolutionary ideals. They serve as critical moments in the text that highlight how language, ideology, and leadership are manipulated to serve the interests of the ruling elite, all while the working class remains oppressed and exploited.