Partial Newspeak Glossary and Quotes from George Orwell’s 1984

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Blackwhite: "Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say the black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary." [175]

Crimestop: "the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought." [174]

Crimethink (thoughtcrime): "He had committed—would still have committed, even is he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it." [19]

Doublethink (reality control): "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." [176]

Duckspeak: to quack like a duck. "Applied to an opponent, it is abuse; applied to someone you agree with, it is praise." [48]

Goodthink: natural orthodoxy; incapability to think a bad thought. [110]

Ingsoc (English Socialism): oligarchic collectivism of Oceania. [162]

Ownlife: "individualism and eccentricity." [70]

Miniluv: the Ministry of Love, "which maintained law and order" [8]

Minipax: the Ministry of Peace, "which concerned itself with war" [8]

Miniplenty: the Ministry of Plenty, "which was responsible for economic affairs" [8]

Minitrue: the Ministry of Truth, "which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts" [8]

Thinkpol: the Thought Police.

Vaporized: "People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word." [20]

Unperson: "Withers, however, was already an unperson. He did not exist; he had never existed." [41]

Even to understand the word "doublethink" involved the use of doublethink. [33]

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it." [46]

Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. [68]

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. [69]

But when war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous. [163]

Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. [204]

"You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right…But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane." [205-206]

"The command of the old despotisms was 'Thou shalt not.' The command of the totalitarians was 'Thou shalt.' Our command is 'Thou art.'" [210-211]


Last updated: 17 Dec 2000 (lhl)