Orwell, George -- Essay (1943-12-20), “Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune Newspaper [as John Freeman]

Dave — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 21:18:09 +0000

I suggest that the real objective of Socialism is not happiness. Happiness hitherto has been a by-product, and for all we know it may always remain so. The real objective of Socialism is human brotherhood. This is widely felt to be the case, though it is not usually said, or not said loudly enough. Men use up their lives in heart-breaking political struggles, or get themselves killed in civil wars, or tortured in the secret prisons of the Gestapo, not in order to establish some central-heated, air-conditioned, strip-lighted Paradise, but because they want a world in which human beings love one another instead of swindling and murdering one another. And they want that world as a first step. Where they go from there is not so certain, and the attempt to foresee it in detail merely confuses the issue.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1943-12-20), “Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune Newspaper [as John Freeman]

The date given for this article varies: the issue of Tribune it was published in was 1943-12-24, but Orwell apparently received a check for the work on 1943-12-20. Note this was not the regular "As I Please" column Blair (Orwell) did for Tribune, which he also wrote for that issue, but a special article written under a different alias for unconfirmed reasons.

The title is sometimes given as "Why Socialists Don't Believe in Fun."

Butler, Samuel -- The Way of All Flesh (1903)

Dave — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 17:51:52 +0000

Never learn anything until you find you have been made uncomfortable for a good long while by not knowing it; when you find that you have occasion for this or that knowledge, or foresee that you will have occasion for it shortly, the sooner you learn it the better, but till then spend your time in growing bone and muscle; these will be much more useful to you than Latin and Greek, nor will you ever be able to make them if you do not do so now, whereas Latin and Greek can be acquired at any time by those who want them.

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Way of All Flesh (1903)

WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1943-12-20), “Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune Newspaper [as John Freeman]

Butler, Samuel -- The Way of All Flesh (1903)