I can hardly tell him this is the age of the bronze caster

I don’t know,’ said Srikanda, shrugging his shoulders. ‘It’s all part of the world opening up. After all, as my son says, this is the age of computers. And as much as I might want otherwise, I can hardly tell him this is the age of the bronze caster.'

W. Dalrymple, Nine Lives (2009), Kindle edition, location 3776

The technology used to turn wheat into Toyotas out in the Pacific is called ‘Japan’

Economist David Friedman observes, for instance, that there are two ways for the United States to produce cars: they can build them in Detroit, or they can grow them in Iowa. Growing them in Iowa makes use of a special technology that turns wheat into Toyotas: simply put the wheat onto ships and send them out into the Pacific ocean. The ships come back a short while later with Toyotas on them. The technology used to turn wheat into Toyotas out in the Pacific is called ‘Japan’, but it could just as easily be a futuristic biofactory floating off the coast of Hawaii.

T. Harford, The undercover economist (2010), Kindle edition, location 3312

Their basic political assumptions are two: nothing ever changes, and foreigners are funny

Naturally the politics of the Gem and Magnet are Conservative, but in a completely pre-1914 style, with no Fascist tinge. In reality their basic political assumptions are two: nothing ever changes, and foreigners are funny ... The assumption all along is not only that foreigners are comics who are put there for us to laugh at, but that they can be classified in much the same way as insects. That is why in all boys' papers, not only the Gem and Magnet, a Chinese is invariably portrayed with a pigtail. It is the thing you recognize him by, like the Frenchman's beard or the Italian's barrel-organ. In papers of this kind it occasionally happens that when the setting of a story is in a foreign country some attempt is made to describe the natives as individual human beings, but as a rule it is assumed that foreigners of any one race are all alike and will conform more or less exactly to the following patterns:

FRENCHMAN: Excitable. Wears beard, gesticulates wildly.
SPANIARD, MEXICAN etc. : Sinister, treacherous.
ARAB, AFGHAN etc.: Sinister, treacherous.
CHINESE: Sinister, treacherous. Wears pigtails.
ITALIAN: Excitable. Grinds barrel-organ or carries stiletto.
SWEDE, DANE etc.: Kind-hearted, stupid.
NEGRO: Comic, very faithful.

G. Orwell, 'Boys' Weeklies' (1940), in Essays (1984), 88

It is my stern belief that sweet wines of high quality ... are best enjoyed on their own

Although there are a few combinations of food and sweet wine that complement each other - like foie gras and Sauternes - it is my stern belief that sweet wines of high quality (and there is no point drinking any other kind) are best enjoyed on their own. While it is certainly true that strong swaggering sweet wines, such as Anghelu Ruju or Amarone, will not be overpowered by even the richest desserts, I see little point in struggling to accommodate two elements that are best enjoyed separately.

S. Brook, Liquid Gold: dessert wines of the world (1987), 282

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