Either we all live in a decent world, or nobody does.

Napoleon is always right.

Weakness is strength.

We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun.

Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes.

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulne­ss while telling carefully constructe­d lies, to hold simultaneo­usly two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradict­ory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy.