The truths that seem most truthful, if you look at them from all sides, if you look at them close up, turn out to be either half truths or lies.
The consequences of every act are included in the act itself.
The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.
Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.
What opinions the masses hold, or do not hold, is looked upon as a matter of indifference. They can be granted intellectual liberty becasue they have no intellect.
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.
But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? And yet --!
My mother studied English and drama at the University of Pennsylvania, where my father studied architecture. She was a great influence in all sorts of ways, a wicked wit.
Why is the sea king of a hundred streams? Because it lies below them. . . If the sage would guide the people, he must serve with humility. If he would lead them, he must follow behind. In this way when the sage rules, the people will not feel oppressed.
I foresee it and yet I hardly ever carry it out as I foresee it. It transforms itself by the actual paint. I don't in fact know very often what the paint will do, and it does many things which are very much better than I could make it do.
I'm really an animal guy. I express myself in different ways as an animal.