“In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an aeroplane they had to make four.”

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country.

Myths which are believed in tend to become true.

All rulers in all ages have tried to impose a false view of the world upon their followers.

Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose

If you kept the small rules, you could break the big ones.

The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.

If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.

I do not wish to comment on the work; if it does not speak for itself, it is a failure.

The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.

Good prose should be transparent, like a window pane.

True freedom is the right to say something that others don’t want to hear.

We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play.

Rich people are poor people with money.

Politics is the choice between the lesser of two evils.

If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.