The fact is that certain themes cannot be celebrated in words, and tyranny is one of them. No one ever wrote a good book in praise of the Inquisition.

Myths which are believed in tend to become true.

If you kept the small rules, you could break the big ones.

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.

In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

The words kept coming back to him, statement of a mystical truth and a palpable absurdity.