The Penguin books are splendid value for sixpence, so splendid that if other publishers had any sense they would combine against them and suppress them.

The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

In this game that we're playing, we can't win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that's all.

A scrupulous writer in every sentence that he writes will ask himself. . . What am I trying to say? What words will express it?...And he probably asks himself. . . Could I put it more shortly? But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing open your mind and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you

Sanity was statistical. It was merely a question of learning to think as they thought.

A plongeur is a slave, and a wasted slave, doing stupid and largely unnecessary work. He is kept at work, ultimately, because of a vague feeling that he would be dangerous if he had leisure. And educated people, who should be on his side, acquiesce in the process, because they know nothing about him and consequently are afraid of him.