"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent"
About this Quote
Orwell’s line flips the halo into a target. By insisting that “saints” be treated as guilty until proven innocent, he borrows the language of courts and due process only to weaponize it against moral celebrity. The sting is in the category “saints”: not the quietly decent, but the canonized figures who arrive pre-certified, wrapped in reverence, and therefore granted exemptions from scrutiny. Orwell’s cynicism isn’t nihilistic; it’s prophylactic. He’s arguing that reputations for purity are not evidence of purity, but incentives to hide dirt - and invitations for institutions to launder power through virtue.
The subtext is political. Orwell had watched the 20th century mass-produce secular saints: party martyrs, revolutionary icons, benevolent strongmen, even “humanitarian” empires. Once someone is placed beyond suspicion, criticism becomes heresy, and truth becomes a loyalty test. That’s how propaganda survives: it doesn’t just sell policies; it sanctifies people, turning judgment into sacrilege. “Always” is doing heavy work here, an uncompromising rule aimed at the exact moments when skepticism feels impolite or dangerous.
The phrasing also needles the reader’s moral laziness. We want heroes to simplify the world; sainthood is a shortcut around ambivalence. Orwell refuses the shortcut. Judge the saint harder, he implies, because the costs of being wrong are higher. When ordinary scoundrels disappoint, you get a scandal. When saints disappoint, you get a movement that mistakes its own mythology for reality.
The subtext is political. Orwell had watched the 20th century mass-produce secular saints: party martyrs, revolutionary icons, benevolent strongmen, even “humanitarian” empires. Once someone is placed beyond suspicion, criticism becomes heresy, and truth becomes a loyalty test. That’s how propaganda survives: it doesn’t just sell policies; it sanctifies people, turning judgment into sacrilege. “Always” is doing heavy work here, an uncompromising rule aimed at the exact moments when skepticism feels impolite or dangerous.
The phrasing also needles the reader’s moral laziness. We want heroes to simplify the world; sainthood is a shortcut around ambivalence. Orwell refuses the shortcut. Judge the saint harder, he implies, because the costs of being wrong are higher. When ordinary scoundrels disappoint, you get a scandal. When saints disappoint, you get a movement that mistakes its own mythology for reality.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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