In places this book is a little over-written, because Mr Blunden is no more able to resist a quotation than some people are to refuse a drink.

People talk about the horrors of war, but what weapon has a man invented that even approaches in cruelty some of the commoner diseases? 'Natural' death, almost by defintion, means something slow, smelly and painful.

I have no wish to take life, not even human life

[T]he more one is conscious of one's political bias, the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one's aesthetic and intellectual integrity.

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

The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.

Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.