Quotables 24 September 2024: Orwell on the increasing ‘slovenliness’ of the English language and its impact on thought

Photo: BBC

‘A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts’. - George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’, 1946.

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