--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: All nationalistic distinctions - all…" description: "\"All nationalistic distinctions - all claims to be better than somebody else because you have a different-shaped skull or speak a different dialect - ar..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/220/george-orwell-57_believe_all-nationalistic-distinctions-all-claim_441176.jpg" --- # All nationalistic distinctions - all claims to be better… ![“All nationalistic distinctions - all claims to be better than somebody else because you have a different-shaped skull or speak a different dialect - are entirely spurious, but they are important so long as people believe in them.” quote by George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/220/george-orwell-57_believe_all-nationalistic-distinctions-all-claim_441176.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/220/george-orwell-57_believe_all-nationalistic-distinctions-all-claim_441176.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/220/george-orwell-57_believe_all-nationalistic-distinctions-all-claim_441176.jpg) > “All nationalistic distinctions - all claims to be better than somebody else because you have a different-shaped skull or speak a different dialect - are entirely spurious, but they are important so long as people believe in them.” [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Nationalistic ideas are false but powerful because people believe them, influencing behavior and policy. **In simple terms:** False ideas can be powerful if believed. Key Takeaway Question beliefs, challenge false narratives. Themes nationalism identity belief power Mood critical reflective Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - political discourse - education - media - community building - policy making Key Concepts social construct psychology politics Questions to Reflect On - How do false beliefs shape societies? - What can reduce their influence? A Different Perspective Belief can outweigh truth, leading to conflict. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Believe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/believe/) [Claims](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/claims/) [Dialect](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dialect/) [Different](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/different/) [Distinction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/distinction/) [Distinctions Claims](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/distinctions-claims-3869252/) [Important](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/important/) [Long](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long/) [Nationalism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nationalism/) [Nationalistic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nationalistic/) [Nationalistic Distinctions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nationalistic-distinctions-3869250/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Skulls](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/skulls/) [Speak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/speak/) [Spurious](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/spurious-518089/) [Spurious Important](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/spurious-important-3869251/) ## Related quotes > [If one harbors anywhere in one's mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, though in a sense known to be true, are inadmissable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/if-one-harbors-anywhere-in-one-s-mind-a-nationalistic-loyalty-or/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [If one harbours anywhere in one's mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, although in a sense known to be true, are inadmissible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/if-one-harbours-anywhere-in-one-s-mind-a-nationalistic-loyalty-or/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [The allegations of me being a pedophile are spurious, at best. However I will admit that taking my knickers off in the park and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thom-yorke/the-allegations-of-me-being-a-pedophile-are-spurious-at-best-however/) [Thom Yorke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thom-yorke/) > [ “\[redacted; quotation spurious\].” ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-stalin/redacted-quotation-spurious/) [Joseph Stalin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-stalin/) > [Correlations are not explanations and besides, they can be as spurious as the high correlation in Finland between foxes killed and divorces.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gunnar-myrdal/correlations-are-not-explanations-and-besides-they-can-be-as-spurious/) [Gunnar Myrdal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gunnar-myrdal/) > [Spurious fame spreads from tongue to tongue like the fog of the early dawn before the sun rises.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/spurious-fame-spreads-from-tongue-to-tongue-like-the-fog-of-the-early/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [There is something spurious about the very term 'a movie made for TV,' because what you make for TV is a TV program.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pauline-kael/there-is-something-spurious-about-the-very-term-a-movie-made-for-tv/) [Pauline Kael](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pauline-kael/) > [Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-le-carre/every-writer-knows-he-is-spurious-every-fiction-writer-would-rather/) [John le Carre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-le-carre/) > [“There is no sincere stupidity that doesn't create, eventually, its own rationale, conduct, operating procedures, its own critical formulae whereby it may be, in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-sorrentino/there-is-no-sincere-stupidity-that-doesn-t-create-eventually-its-own/) [Gilbert Sorrentino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-sorrentino/) > [All virtue which is impracticable is spurious.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edmund-burke/all-virtue-which-is-impracticable-is-spurious/) [Edmund Burke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edmund-burke/) > [“He watched her screen, her spell-checker halting at such spurious entries as "fuckwitism" and "Caliguliberal".”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cara-mckenna/he-watched-her-screen-her-spell-checker-halting-at-such-spurious/) [Cara McKenna](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cara-mckenna/) > [Abstract ideas like equality and liberty have a spurious transparency, and can be used to derive pleasing theorems in the manner of Jean-Jacques Rousseau…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-scruton/abstract-ideas-like-equality-and-liberty-have-a-spurious-transparency/) [Roger Scruton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-scruton/) > [We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need no more seek…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/we-have-been-snared-in-the-coils-of-a-spurious-logic-which-insists/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I've always been really nationalistic, and I had a brother killed in Korea. And I think the 'Star Spangled Banner,' even today - and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-west/i-ve-always-been-really-nationalistic-and-i-had-a-brother-killed-in/) [Jerry West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-west/) > [I wasn’t like, boo hoo, Bin Laden’s dead, but I wasn’t jumping. 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For he is not only writing of the prairie, he also wanders through…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/whitman-himself-accepted-a-great-deal-that-his-contemporaries-found/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [“But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Whatever the Party holds to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/but-i-tell-you-winston-that-reality-is-not-external-reality-exists-in/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [“And the people under the sky were also very much the same...everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/and-the-people-under-the-sky-were-also-very-much-the-same-everywhere/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/don-t-you-see-that-the-whole-aim-of-newspeak-is-to-narrow-the-range/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on--that is, badly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/windmill-or-no-windmill-he-said-life-would-go-on-as-it-had-always/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/man-is-the-only-creature-that-consumes-without-producing-he-does-not/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [And the bigger the fall, the bigger the joke. 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