The cheaper books become, the less money is spent on books.

A plongeur is a slave, and a wasted slave, doing stupid and largely unnecessary work. He is kept at work, ultimately, because of a vague feeling that he would be dangerous if he had leisure. And educated people, who should be on his side, acquiesce in the process, because they know nothing about him and consequently are afraid of him.

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

The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies 'something not desirable.'

The major problem of our time is the decay in the belief in personal immortality, and it cannot be dealt with while the average human being is either drudging like an ox or shivering in fear of the secret police... How right [the working classes] are to realize that the belly comes before the soul, not in the scale of values but in point of time!

Snobbishness, like hypocrisy, is a check upon behaviour whose value from a social point of view has been underrated.

It's frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.