Mark André ’s Reviews > Eight Modern Essayists > Status Update

As our common complexities increase, any tale of individual simplicity (and yours is the best written and cockiest) acquires a new fascination; as our goods accumulate, but not our well-being, your report of an existence without material adornment takes on a certain awkward credibility.
My purpose in going to Walden Pond, like yours,to transact some private business with the fewest obstacles
E B White
Walden
1939

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.
[...]
All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
[...]
Political language—[...], from Conservatives to Anarchists—is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

George Orwell

Afterwards, of course, there were endless discussions about the shooting of the elephant.
Among the Europeans opinion was divided. The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie.
I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.