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About this quote

What does it mean?
The future might be a boot stamping on a human face forever, symbolizing endless oppression.
In plain terms
The future could be pure tyranny that never ends.
What can you take from it?
Oppression can be permanent without vigilance.

Where it applies

  • political warnings
  • literary discussion

Putting it to work

  • warn against authoritarianism

Questions to consider

  • What does the boot represent in your life?

Another view

It is a bleak metaphor without a path to resistance.

More from George Orwell

  1. We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.

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  2. It's not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchi…

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  3. Within any important issue, there are always aspects no one wishes to discuss.

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