All the papers that matter live off their advertisements, and the advertisers exercise an indirect censorship over news.

Some hams hanging in the kitchen were taken out for burial

His answer to every problem, every setback was “I will work harder!” —which he had adopted as his personal motto.

Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the Earth goes round the Sun; today, to believe the past is inalterable. He might be alone in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong.

Within certain limits, it is actually true that the less money you have, the less you worry.

The most stirring battle-poem in English is about a brigade of cavalry which charged in the wrong direction.

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of the political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.