No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.

The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.

His answer to every problem, every setback was “I will work harder!” —which he had adopted as his personal motto.

To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.

When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?

Money writes books, money sells them. Give me not righteousness, O Lord, give me money, only money.

Real journalism is publishing something that somebody else does not want published - the rest is just public relations.