Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books is a quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job. It not only involves praising trash but constantly inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous feeling whatever.

Quote by George Orwell

Topics: Books Quotes

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is...

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is...

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war...

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war...

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they...

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they...

War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.

War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind...

The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind...

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it,...

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it,...

War is war. The only good human being is a dead one.

War is war. The only good human being is a dead one.

One cannot really be a Catholic and grown up.

One cannot really be a Catholic and grown up.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going...

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going...

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who...

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who...

Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

A man receiving charity always hates his benefactor- it is a fixed characteristic of human...

A man receiving charity always hates his benefactor- it is a fixed characteristic of human...

To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some...

To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some...

As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.

As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.

The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good...

The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good...

He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the...

He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the...

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a...

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a...

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.