She held herself very straight, like Audrey Hepburn, whom all women idolize and men never think about.
Captain Harvile: I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which did not have something to say on women's fickleness. Anne Elliot: But they were all written by men.
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
...rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor -- such is my idea of happiness. And then, on the top of all that, you for a mate, and children perhaps -- what more can the heart of man desire?
Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.
I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.
Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song.
'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'