Animal Farm Quotes

Context

This line is from the novel Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell.

In the first scene of Animal Farm, Old Major (a prize pig and also a symbol of Karl Marx) gathers all the animals to tell them about the dream he had last night, the gist of which is that the animals should overthrow their human tyrants.

This line from his "I Literally Had a Dream" speech lays out the principal problem of the animals' lives: the humans take advantage of them, reaping all the benefits of the animals' labor and slaughtering them when they're no longer producing.

Where you've heard it

This might be the second most famous line in Animal Farm, right after that "All animals are equal," one, but it's not quite as snappy and ironic, so it doesn't get quoted nearly as much. In fact, it's a real downer, so you're going to hear it only among disaffected groups who really feel they've gotten a raw deal.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

We're going to give this one a middle-of-the-road pretentiousness rating, because how pretentious it is depends on your context. If you're complaining about First World Problems like the fact that your iPhone broke, then you'll sound super pretentious. However, if you're in the middle of a civil war and your house has been bombed and your chances of survival are slim, you've earned the right to bust out some Old Major.