The Road to Wigan Pier

by George Orwell

But it is equally certain that their circumstances do not encourage self–respect.

We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine gun.

The truth is that no modern man, in his heart of hearts, believes that it is right to invade a foreign country and hold the population down by force.

Snobbishness is one of those vices which we can discern in everyone else but' never in ourselves.

Meanwhile one can observe on every side that dreary phenomenon, the middle–class person who is an ardent Socialist at twenty–five and a sniffish Conservative at thirty–five.

The question one has got to consider is whether there is any human activity which would not be maimed by the dominance of the machine.

The machine would even encroach upon the activities we now class as 'art';

If only Orwell could see the world today!

Mechanization leads to the decay of taste, the decay of taste leads to the demand for machine–made articles and hence to more mechanization, and so a vicious circle is established.

Socialism means the overthrow of tyranny, at home as well as abroad. So long as you keep that fact well to the front, you will never be in much doubt as to who are your real supporters.