Coming Up for Air

by George Orwell

Two kids in a house the size of ours is like a quart of beer in a pint mug.

I feel that there’s life in the old dog yet and plenty of good times ahead,

When you look back over a long period you seem to see human beings always fixed in some special place and some characteristic attitude.

I mean the feeling inside you, the feeling of not being in a hurry and not being frightened,

It gave me an attitude, a kind of questioning attitude, which I probably wouldn’t have had if I’d gone through life in a normal sensible way.

Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea.

I don’t even want to be young again. I only want to be alive.