[rose bushes] Their chift interest was that they were never, or very seldom, what thy claimed to be on their labels. .. These roses had all the interest of a surprise packet, and there was always the chance that you might happen upon a new variety which you would have the right to name John Smith of something of that kind. Volume 3, p. 104
But one has the right to expect ordinary decency of a poet. Volume 3, p. 106
A member of a small nationality, a Dane or a Dutchman, say, has to learn three foreign languages as a matter of course, if he wants to be educated at all. Volume 3, p. 108
[History and truth] Even as late as the last war it was possible for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for instance, to compile its articles on the various campaigns partly from German sources. Some of the facts - the casualty figures, for instance - were regarded as neutral and in substance accepted by everybody. No such thing would be possible now. A Nazi and a non-Nazi version of the present war would have no resemblance to one another, and which of them finally gets into the history books will be decided not by evidential methods but on the battlefield. Volume 3, p. 109
In the last analysis our only claim to victory is that if we win the war we shall tell less lies about it than our adversaries. The really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits ‘atrocities’ but that it attacks the concept of objective truth: it claims to control the past as well as the future. In spite of all the lying and self-righteousness that war encourages, I do not honestly thing it can be said that that habit of mind is growing in Britain. Volume 3, p. 110
If we were really fighting for turned-up trouser-ends, I should be inclined to be pro-Axis. Volume 3, p. 111
The relevance of flying saints to the Socialist movement may not at first sight be very clear, .. Volume 3, p. 124
Western civilisation, unlike some oriental civilizations, was founded partly on the belief in individual immortality. If one looks at the Christian religion from the outside, this belief appears far more important than the belief in God. Volume 3, p. 126
I do not want the belief in life after death to return, and in any case it is not likely to return. What I do point out is that its disappearance has left a big hole, and that we ought to take notice of that fact. Reared for thousands of years on the notion that the individual survives, man has got to make a considerable psychological effort to get used to the notion that the individual perishes. He is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell. Marxism, indeed, does supply this, but it has never really been popularized. Most Socialists are content to point out that once Socialism has been established we shall be happier in a material sense, and to assume that all problems lapse when one's belly is full. But the truth is the opposite: when one's belly is empty, one's problem is an empty belly. It is when we have got away from drudgery and exploitation that we shall really start wondering about man's destiny and the reason for his existence. One cannot have any worthwhile picture of the future unless one realizes how much we have lost by the decay of Christianity. Volume 3, p. 127
The result is a style of writing that bears the same relation to wrinting real English as doing a jigsaw puzzle bears to painting a picture. Volume 3, p. 135
Arab nationalism, Polish nationalism, Finnish nationalism, the Indian Congress Party, the Muslim League, Zionism, and the I.R.A are all described as Fascist — but not by the same people.
It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. Volume 3, p. 138
The left-wingers who tried to make the public see that Fascism was an unspeakable horror were fighting against their own propaganda of the past fifteen years. ..
Results are what matter, and one of the results we want from this war is to be quite sure that Germany will not make war again. Whether this is best achieved by ruthlessness or generosity I am not certain: but I am quite certain that either of these will be more difficult if we allow ourselves to be influenced by hatred. Volume 3, p. 142
Except where libel is involved, the average journalist is astonished and even contemptuous if anyone bothers about accuracy with regard to names, dates, figures and other details. Volume 3, p. 156
.. whereas, I suppose, to blame somebody like Northcliffe for making money in the quickest way is like blaming a skunk for stinking. Volume 3, p. 157
The fallacy is to believe that under a dictatorial government you can be free inside. Quite a number of people console themselves with this thought, now that totalitarianism in one form or another is visibly on the up-grade in every part of the world. Volume 3, p. 159
Take away freedom of speech, and the creative faculties dry up. Volume 3, p. 160
[today: drones] .. the pilotless plane, flying bomb, or whatever its correct name may be, is an exceptionally unpleasant thing, because, unlike most other projectiles, it gives you time to think. What is your first reaction when you hear that droning, zooming noise? Inevitably, it is a hope that the noise won’t stop. You want to hear the bomb pass safely overhead and die away into the distance before the engine cuts out. In other words, you are hoping that it will fall on somebody else. [cf. drones] Volume 3, p. 208
In this country we are not troubled by lack of water. If anything we have too much of it, especially on Bank Holidays. Volume 3, p. 222
.. But if those things were true England would no longer be England, and I fancy that we shall have to find some way of acquiring foreign currency that is more in accord with our national character. Volume 3, p. 243
Their attitude towards Russian foreign policy is not ‘Is this policy right or wrong?’ but ‘This is Russian policy: how can we make it appear right?’ And this attitude is defended, if at all, solely on grounds of power. ..
This involves the principle, of its nature alien to Socialism, that you must not protest against an evil which you cannot prevent. ..
The best way to come to an agreement with a foreign nation is not to refrain from criticizing its policies, even to the extent of leaving your own people in the dark about them. Volume 3, p. 262-263
[Anglo-Russian friendship] The first step towards a real alliance is the dropping of illusions. Volume 3, p. 264
[War economy and V1-bombs] whereas the Germans shot off 8,000 doodlebugs, or something under 8,000 tons of high explosive, we dropped 100,000 tons of bombs on the bases, besides losing 450 aeroplanes and shooting off hundreds of thousands or millions of A.A. shells [anti-aircraft]. One can only make rough calculations at this date, but it looks as though the doodlebug may have a big future in forthcoming wars. Volume 3, p. 270
To compose a propaganda pamphlet or a radio feature needs just as much work as to write something you believe in, with the difference that the finished product is worthless. ...
A writer inevitably writes - and less directly this applies to all the arts - about contemporary events, and his impulse is to tell what he believes to be the truth. But no government, no big organization will pay for the truth. Volume 3, p. 293
[Christian authors] The line of attack is always the same. Every heresy has been uttered before (with the implication that it has also been refuted before), and theology is only understood by theologians (with the implication that you should leave your thinking to the priests). Volume 3, p. 304
[ready-made plots for authors] But who would buy a bottle of hair restorer from a bald man? Volume 3, p. 315
V2 .. supplies another instance of the contrariness of human nature. People are complaining .. 'It wouldn't be so bad if you got at bit of warning' is the usual formula. There is even a tendency to talk nostalgically of the days of the V1. .. Some people are never satisfied. Personally, I am no lover of the V2, especially at this moment when the house still seems to be rocking from a recent explosion, but what depresses me about these things is the way they set people talking about the next war.
Every time one goes off I hear gloomy references to 'next time', and the reflection: 'I suppose they'll be able to shoot them across the Atlantic by that time.' but if you ask who will be fighting whom when this universally expected war breaks out, you get no clear answer. It is just war in the abstract – the notion that human beings could ever behave sanely having apparently faded out of many people's memories. Volume 3, p. 320-321
This is not only dishonest; it also carries a severe penalty with it. If you disregard people's motives, it becomes much harder to foresee their actions. Volume 3, p. 330
We in this country have bad taste, as we have bad teeth, because of complex but discoverable social causes. It is a thing to be fought against, and an important part of the fight devolves on the artist and the critic. The artist fights it by preserving his integrity: the critic fights against it by educating the public. And flattery is not a form of education. To assume that the big public is inevitably composed of fools, and then to imply that there is something lovable and even meritorious in being a fool, is less useful and less admirable than retreating to an ivory tower with all the windows barred. Volume 3, p. 299.
Our critics are divisible into two main schools. It would be manifestly impossible to satisfy both, and in practice, I should say, impossible satisfy either.
The first school accuses us of being lowbrow, vulgar, ignorant, obsessed with politics, hostile to the arts, dominated by back-scratching cliques and anxious to prevent talented young writers from getting a hearing.
The other school accuses us of being highbrow, arty, bourgeois, indifferent to politics and constantly wasting space on material that can be of no interest to a working man and of no direct use to the Socialist movement.
Both points need meeting, because between them they express a difficulty that is inherent in running any paper that is not a pure propaganda sheet. ..
Nor will we print anything that is verbally unintelligible. I have had several angry letters because of this, but I refuse to be responsible for printing anything that I do not understand. Volume 3, p. 354-355
.. Even the most unpolitical book, even an outright reactionary book, can be of use to the Socialist movement if it provides reliable information or forces people to think. Volume 3, p. 356
.. We hold that the reviewer's job is to say what he thinks of the book he is dealing with, and not what we think our readers ought to think. ..
.. And though, in this section of the paper, our main aim is to talk about books as books, we believe that anyone who upholds the freedom of the intellect, in this age of lies and regimentation, is not serving the cause of Socialism so badly either. Volume 3, p. 357
Already, quite visibly and more or less with the acquiescence of all of us, the world is splitting up into the two or three huge super-states forecast in James Burnham’s Managerial Revolution. One cannot draw their exact boundaries as yet, but one can see more or less what areas they will comprise. And if the world does settle down into this pattern, it is likely that these vast states will be permanently at war with one another though it will not necessarily be a very intensive or bloody kind of war. Their problems, both economic and psychological, will be a lot simpler if the doodlebugs are more or less constantly whizzing to and fro.
If these two or three super-states do establish themselves, not only will each of them be too big to be conquered, but they will be under no necessity to trade with one another, and in a position to prevent all contact between their nationals. Already, for a dozen years or so, large areas of the earth have been cut off from one another, although technically at peace. Volume 3, p. 374
By intelligence I do not mean agreement with my own opinions. I mean a readiness to present news objectively, to give prominence to the things that really matter, to discuss serious questions even when they are dull, and to advocate policies which are at least coherent and intelligible. ..
The paper that has the best reputation for truthfulness, the Manchester Guardian, is the one that is not read even by those who admire it. People complain that it is 'so dull'. On the other hand countless people read the Daily - while saying frankly that the 'don’t believe a word of it'. Volume 4, pp. 280-281
the world is suffering from some kind of mental disease which must be diagnosed before it can be cured. Volume 4, p. 289
[writers should stop at middle age] In a reasonable world a writer who had said his say would simply take up some other profession. Volume 4, p. 294
[writing for Tribune] .. the only existing weekly paper that makes a genuine effort to be both progressive and humane - that is, to combine a radical Socialist policy with a respect for freedom of speech and a civilized attitude towards literature and the arts. Volume 4, p. 323
