George Orwell

Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie... a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.

Dickens is one of those authors who are well worth stealing.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.

Happiness can exist only in acceptance.

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.

Myths which are believed in tend to become true.