In almost any revolt the leaders would tend to be people who could pronounce their aitches.
In a Society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law.
If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.
If you kept the small rules, you could break the big ones.
If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics – a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage – surely that proves that you are in the right?
If the war didn’t happen to kill you it was bound to start you thinking.
If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.
I’m fat, but I’m thin inside. Has it ever struck you that there’s a thin man inside every fat man, just as they say there’s a statue inside every block of stone?
I will work harder![repeated often in the rest of the book]
I have the most evil memories of Spain, but I have very few bad memories of Spaniards.
I don’t mind towns growing, so long as they do grow and don’t merely spread like gravy over a tablecloth.
He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him).
