Orwell, George -- Essay (1947-03), “Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool,” Polemic Magazine, No. 7

Dave — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 15:01:48 +0000

But a normal human being does not want the Kingdom of Heaven: he wants life on earth to continue. This is not solely because he is “weak”, “sinful” and anxious for a “good time”. Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise. Ultimately it is the Christian attitude which is self-interested and hedonistic, since the aim is always to get away from the painful struggle of earthly life and find eternal peace in some kind of Heaven or Nirvana. The humanist attitude is that the struggle must continue and that death is the price of life.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1947-03), “Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool,” Polemic Magazine, No. 7
(Source)

Collected in Inside the Whale, and Other Essays (1962).

WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1947-03), “Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool,” Polemic Magazine, No. 7