33 Animal Farm Quotes About Power and Propaganda

This collection of Animal Farm quotes contains some of the most famous lines from one of George Orwell’s best books.

Animal Farm is a satire of the Soviet Union and Stalin’s rise to power, mirrored by the rise of the Pig, Napoleon in this work. These quotes from Animal Farm reflect the absurdity of what life was like during his rule.

You’ll find Animal Farm quotes about power, propaganda and manipulation below that, although intended to satirise, apply to us today. Many regimes still use the playbook outlined in Orwell’s work, and reading this book makes it easier to spot.

If you want to find out more about the book before you read it, or you’re interested in seeing some of the most famous quotes from the book, this is the post for you!

Animal Farm Quotes

“ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.” – From Chapter 10

“Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey.” – From Chapter 3

“Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies.” – From Chapter 2

“I have little more to say. I merely repeat, remember always your duty of enmity towards Man and all his ways. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices. No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade. All the habits of Man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal.” – From Chapter 1

“All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.” – From Chapter 1

“We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.” – From Chapter 3

“The animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master.” – From Chapter 3

“Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.” – From Chapter 1

“The human beings did not hate Animal Farm any less now that it was prospering; indeed, they hated it more than ever.” – From Chapter 6

“All through that summer the work of the farm went like clockwork. The animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master. With the worthless parasitical human beings gone, there was more for everyone to eat.” – From Chapter 3

“Ah, that is different!” said Boxer. “If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.” – From Chapter 7

“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.” – From Chapter 10

“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.” – From Chapter 2

“FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD” – From Chapter 3

“All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.” – From Chapter 6

“They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.” – From Chapter 7

“Some of the animals remembered — or thought they remembered – that the Sixth Commandment decreed, ‘No animal shall kill any other animal.’ And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or the dogs, it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this.” – From Chapter 8

“And so the tale of confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones.” – From Chapter 7

“No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. 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.” – From Chapter 10

“It was about this time that the pigs suddenly moved into the farmhouse and took up their residence there. Again the animals seemed to remember that a resolution against this had been passed in the early days, and again Squealer was able to convince them that this was not the case. It was absolutely necessary, he said, that the pigs, who were the brains of the farm, should have a quiet place to work in. It was also more suited to the dignity of the Leader (for of late he had taken to speaking of Napoleon under the title of “Leader”) to live in a house than in a mere sty.” – From Chapter 6

“After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. It did not seem strange to learn that the pigs had bought themselves a wireless set, were arranging to install a telephone, and had taken out subscriptions to ‘John Bull’, ‘Tit-Bits’, and the ‘Daily Mirror’. It did not seem strange when Napoleon was seen strolling in the farmhouse garden with a pipe in his mouth – no, not even when the pigs took Mr. Jones’s clothes out of the wardrobes and put them on.” – From Chapter 10

“Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball. If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say that Snowball had come in the night and done it, and when the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal.” – From Chapter 7

“Rumours of a wonderful farm, where the human beings had been turned out and the animals managed their own affairs, continued to circulate in vague and distorted forms, and throughout that year a wave of rebelliousness ran through the countryside.” – From Chapter 4

Quotes From Napoleon in Animal Farm

“Comrades,” he said quietly, “do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL!” – From Chapter 6

“Between pigs and human beings there was not and there need not be any clash of interest whatever.” – From Chapter 10

“Never mind the milk, comrades!” cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. “That will be attended to. The harvest is more important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes. Forward, comrades! The hay is waiting.” – From Chapter 2

“Animal Farm, Animal Farm, never through me shalt thou come to harm!” – From Chapter 7

“The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally.” – From Chapter 10

“Surely, comrades, you don’t want Jones back?” – From Chapter 5

“As soon as they [the puppies] were weaned, Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education. He took them up into a loft which could only be reached by a ladder from the harness-room, and there kept them in such seclusion that the rest of the farm soon forgot their existence.” – From Chapter 3

“The animals listened first to Napoleon, then to Snowball, and could not make up their minds which was right; indeed, they always found themselves in agreement with the one who was speaking at the moment.” – From Chapter 5

“Gentlemen,” concluded Napoleon, “I will give you the same toast as before, but in a different form. Fill your glasses to the brim. Gentlemen, here is my toast: To the prosperity of The Manor Farm!” – From Chapter 10

“He announced that from now on the Sunday-morning Meetings would come to an end. They were unnecessary, he said, and wasted time. In future all questions relating to the working of the farm would be settled by a special committee of pigs, presided over by himself.” – From Chapter 5

If these quotes have inspired you to read Animal Farm or read it again, check out the link below to get the book!

Frequently Asked Questions

You Might Also Like

George Orwell Quotes – For more quotes from the author of Animal Farm, check this article of ours that has a wide range of interesting thoughts from the great author.

Nineteen Eighty-Four summary – Another of George Orwell’s most famous books that focuses on an authoritarian regime not too dissimilar to the one in Animal Farm.

1984 Quotes – A collection of the most famous quotes from another of Orwell’s most well-known books.