England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. It is a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly.

There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always— do not forget this, Winston— always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.

The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.

Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on--that is, badly.

A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things.

To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country.

I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.