In Animal Farm, who reduces the ideals of Animalism to the phrase, “four legs good, two legs bad?"

In Animal Farm, it is Snowball, one of the pigs, who reduces the principles of Animalism down to this single maxim. This takes place in Chapter Three after the expulsion of Mr. Jones, when Snowball is trying to help the other animals memorize the Seven Commandments. Frustrated by their inability to learn, Snowball thus reduces it, believing this maxim contains the "essential principle of Animalism."

This tactic is successful, and the animals next inscribe the maxim on the barn wall above the Seven Commandments and in "bigger letters."

That Snowball and the other pigs are responsible for developing the farm's new ideology demonstrates their superiority over the others. This foreshadows the future conflict between the pigs and the other animals, as the former ascend to become tyrannical rulers of the farm.