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"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."
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Exlpore more Pessimism quotes
"Pessimism is as American as apple pie - frozen apple pie with a slice of processed cheese."
"Remember the words of Chairman Mao: 'It's always darkest before it's totally black.'."
"I foresee that man will resign himself each day to new abominations, and soon that only bandits and soldiers will be left."
"Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself."
"My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists."
"I never said I was sad, I'm just pessimistic, said Alecto. "Expect the worst, that way you'll never be disappointed, Mandy Valems."
"Pessimists are not boring. Pessimists are right. Pessimists are superfluous."
"Cynicism is full of naive disappointments."
Explore more quotes by George Orwell
"For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself. You must know all the while that it is there, but until it is needed you must never let it emerge into your consciousness in any shape that could be given a name."
"Sometimes they threaten you with something - something you can't stand up to, can't even think about. And then you say, "Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to So-and-so." And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving yourself, and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You WANT it to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care is yourself."
"It is impossible to read through the reports in the Communist Press without realizing that they are consciously aimed at a public ignorant of the facts and have no other purpose than to work up prejudice."
"And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving yourself and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself."
"Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea."
"People are wrong when they think that an unemployed man only worries about losing his wages; on the contrary, an illiterate man, with the work habit in his bones, needs work even more than he needs money. An educated man can put up with enforced idleness, which is one of the worst evils of poverty. But a man like Paddy, with no means of filling up time, is as miserable out of work as a dog on the chain. That is why it is such nonsense to pretend that those who have 'come down in the world' are to be pitied above all others.The man who really merits pity is the man who has been down from the start,and faces poverty with a blank, resourceless mind."
"Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand."
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