A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.

It is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

A dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.

Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings.

Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a childs eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below.

He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him.

Society has always to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others.

Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.

One cannot really be a Catholic and grown up.

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.

The Catholic and the Communist are alike in assuming that an opponent cannot be both honest and intelligent.

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.