The burden of ugliness becomes lighter if it is shared with descendants

The only thing that makes me somewhat skeptical regarding human procreation is the unintelligent selection of parents. Some of the most unattractive individuals in the world feel they must multiply at all costs. They are apparently under the illusion that the burden of ugliness becomes lighter if it is shared with descendants.

M. Kundera, The farewell party (1976), 89

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself?

What can you do, thoght Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?

G. Orwell, Nineteen eighty-four (1949), 301

The Party is not concerned with perpetuating its blood but with perpetuating itself

The older kind of Socialist, who had been trained to fight against something called 'class privilege' assumed that what is not hereditary cannot be permanent. He did not see that the continuity of an oligarchy need not be physical, nor did he pause to reflect that hereditary aristocracies have always been shortlived, whereas adoptive organizations such as the Catholic Church have sometimes lasted for hundreds or thousands of years. The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the living. A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors. The Party is not concerned with perpetuating its blood but with perpetuating itself.

G. Orwell, Nineteen eighty-four (1949), 239-40

He realized how easy it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp whatever of what orthodoxy meant

He realized how easy it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp whatever of what orthodoxy meant. In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding, they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm because it left no residue behind.

G. Orwell, Nineteen eighty-four (1949), 179-80

She could have recited the Twenty-Third Psalm and made it indecent

The lyrics of Marie [Lloyd]’s songs were never crude, but they were sufficiently suggestive to encourage the mind to wander. She could, said on impresario, have recited the Twenty-Third Psalm and made it indecent

J. Major, My Old Man: a personal history of music hall (2012), 121

It was low born but irresistable

In its formative years, the vulgarity and sentimentality of music hall attracted a largely working-class audience, but its appeal was far wider. It took root in England only a few years after there had been a real fear of revolution, and helped turn sour resentment into a patriotic roar of joy. It was low-born but irresistible. Its songs have become the folk songs of a nation.

J. Major, My Old Man: a personal history of music hall (2012), 3

Suitable for those sons (and a few daughters) of wealthy men whose academic abilities were limited

Modern History was the most popular school in Oxford, regarded as a soft option, suitable for those sons (and a few daughters) of wealthy men whose academic abilities were limited.

A. Sisman, Hugh Trevor - Roper: the biography (2010), 35