Out of constables we have made grandees, idiots have shared out the honours, thieves are making rich men for us, dark souls have called themselves patriots.

• 

  And wishing to hide from shame, I drink, and wish that I were drunk for ever; then I do not see vice, a society steeped in gloom, then I do not even see the shame that I too am a man.

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  War propaganda comes down, in the end, to substituting diabolical abstractions for human beings.

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  The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

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  Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.

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  Power is not a means; it is an end.

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  If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.

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