The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind him that he is already degraded.

You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.

Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.

When I see a policeman with a club beating a man on the ground, I don't have to ask whose side I'm on.

There were sins that were too subtle to be explained, and there were others that were too terrible to be clearly mentioned. For example, there was sex, which was always smouldering just under the surface and which suddenly blew up into a tremendous row when I was about twelve.

There is no swifter route to the corruption of thought than through the corruption of language

It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it. Nothing had changed except your own attitude: the predestined thing happened in any case.