To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.

If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man.

Ignorance and prejudice are the ballast of our ship of state - however, ships without ballast are not seaworthy and cannot sail in the tempests, nor reach a safe harbor.

When I talk to anyone or read the writings of anyone who has any axe to grind, I feel that intellectual honesty and balanced judgement have simply disappeared from the face of the earth. Everyone's thought is forensic, everyone is simply putting a "case" with deliberate suppression of his opponent's point of view, and, what is more, with complete insensitiveness to any sufferings except those of himself and his friends.

Totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

Fate seemed to be playing a series of extraordinarily unamusing jokes.