Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Book ·37 of 348
"Big Brother is watching you."
They never said that.
What people say
"Big Brother is watching you."
What was actually said
"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." Propaganda poster — Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
Why it stuck
The phrase is always rendered in capitals in the novel — Orwell used typography to mark it as poster text. Lowercase citation is the convention now, but it's not what's on the page.
Orwell uses the all-caps version exactly this way across the novel.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.