All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

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.

The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.

There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

Well, your greatest joy definitely comes from doing something for another, especially when it was done with no thought of something in return.

I learned that people everywhere are basically the same and have similar goals that we do. They want health and happiness and the opportunity to provide for their families.

Happiness isn't for dabblers.