What can the England of 1940 have in common with the England of 1840? But then, what have you in common with the child of five whose photograph your mother keeps on the mantelpiece? Nothing, except that you happen to be the same person.

In moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy but always against one's own body.

A human being is primarily a bag for putting food into.

You asked me once,' said O'Brien, 'what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.

Man's greatest drive is not love or hate but to change another person's writing.

You must be an intellectual. A normal person would never believe a thing like that.

Human beings were behaving as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine.