Shmoop Animal Farm Quotes

While the pigs use many different forms of deception and lies, it is their ability to alter the past in the minds of the animals that is their most powerful tool of control.

Squealer conceals actual knowledge from the other animals by stuffing their heads full of false information – frivolous numbers and figures.

The maxim of "Four legs good, two legs bad," which ultimately serves as a controlling device, arises because of the ignorance of the working animals. Its simplicity allows it to be easily altered and manipulated.

Goodbye Boxer and the Betrayal of the Proletariat (Working Class) Throughout Animal Farm, we’ve seen the pigs betray the principles of the Rebellion over and over again. Yet no betrayal is quite so poignant as what happens after Boxer’s lung collapses.

if liberty means anything at all, it means telling people what they do not want to hear” (Preface to the UK edition).

Orwell’s fable demonstrates how Stalinism gained hold in Russia, but says much less about what allowed it to gain hold. At some times, it seems like it’s the stupidity and gullibility of the other animals on the farm.