These Animal Farm quotes will remind you to always check your privilege and to think of what can happen when you use power to harm others.
“Animal Farm” is an allegory from more than 75 years ago that’s still read in classrooms today.
Published in 1945, the book became a great success and won many awards, including a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996.
Time Magazine chose it as one of the 100 best English-language novels and it is also included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.
Whether you’ve read the classic story by George Orwell or not, chances are that you’ve heard about it at some point in your life.
And that’s because this book has an important message that can apply to many different situations, even today.
The book is based on the Russian Revolution and talks about what happens when too much power can eventually lead to corruption.
Without giving too much away — and despite what your own views may be on communism and socialism — these Animal Farm quotes will discuss the power of having too much power, and what can happen when strides to make society equal actually lead to vast inequality.
Don’t forget to also check out our collection of 1984 quotes that will change the way you see the world.
Animal Farm Quotes on Hierarchy and Order
1. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
2. “Four legs good, two legs bad.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
3. “The only good human being is a dead one.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
4. “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
5. “Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
6. “If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
7. “The Seven Commandments:
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
Animal Farm Quotes on Corruption and Control
8. “Several of them would have protested if they could have found the right arguments.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
9. “This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
10. “Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on–that is, badly.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
11. “Surely, comrades, you don’t want Jones back?” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
12. “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.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
13. “Some of the animals remembered – or thought they remembered – that the Sixth Commandment decreed ‘No animal shall kill any other animal.’” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
14. “Never mind the milk, comrades!” cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
15. “Four young porkers in the front row uttered shrill squeals of disapproval, and all four of them sprang to their feet and began speaking at once.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
16. “The result of preaching totalitarian doctrines is to weaken the instinct by means of which free peoples know what is or is not dangerous.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
17. “One does not say that a book ‘ought not to have been published’ merely because it is a bad book. After all, acres of rubbish are printed daily and no one bothers.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
18. “Muriel,” she said, “read me the Fourth Commandment. Does it not say something about never sleeping in a bed?” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
You might also like these Of Mice of Men quotes that will inspire you to keep your head up.
Animal Farm Quotes on Powerful Leadership
19. “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.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
20. “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
21. “All men are enemies. All animals are comrades” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
22. “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
23. “But the luxuries of which Snowball had once taught the animals to dream, the stalls with electric light and hot and cold water, and the three-day week, were no longer talked about.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
24. “It had become usual to give Napoleon the Credit for every Successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
25. “Man serves the interests of no creature except himself.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
Read our collection of dog quotes about our favorite four-legged friends.
What did you learn from these Animal Farm quotes?
In this day in age, it’s easy to see that authority is often taken advantage of by those who are in a unique position in which they have power over others.
Because of this, individuals and groups of people — even entire nations — are usually helpless, even if those in power may have good intentions at heart.
This is a meaningful lesson that we can learn from Animal Farm.
Whether we recognize this in our government or even in our work lives, these Animal Farm quotes will remind us to always check our privilege and to think of what can happen when we use power to harm those who are in a different position than ourselves.
What’s your biggest takeaway from these Animal Farm quotes?
Do you have any other favorite quotes to add?
Let us know in the comment section below.