It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level.

All nationalistic distinctions - all claims to be better than somebody else because you have a different-shaped skull or speak a different dialect - are entirely spurious, but they are important so long as people believe in them.

Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful.

Imperialism as he [Kipling] sees it is a sort of forcible evangelising.

Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.

I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.

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.