Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books is a quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job. It not only involves praising trash but constantly inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous feeling whatever.

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.

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

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

Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.

The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal.