... ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people have a chance... A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon -- so long as there is no answer to it -- gives claws to the weak.

A human being is primarily a bag for putting food into.

Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same.

It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.

The main motive for nonattachment is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work.

I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.

Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.