A brief snapshot of why George Orwell is brilliant.

" If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. "

" Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: it is war minus the shooting. "

" Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act. "

" The great enemy of clear language is insincerity "

" For a creative writer possession of the truth is less important than emotional sincerity. "

" Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. "

" The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. "

" An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats. "

" Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. "

" Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent. "

" At age 50, every man has the face he deserves. "

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

" Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. "

" Liberal: a power worshipper without power. "

" Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. "

" War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. "

Oh and one final cheery thought...

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever.