# Quote — George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London

> The whole business of swearing, especially English swearing, is mysterious. Of its very nature swearing is as irrational as magic-- indeed, it is a species of magic. But there is also a paradox about it, namely this: Our intention in swearing is to shock and wound, which we do by mentioning something that should be kept secret--usually something to do with the sexual functions. But the strange thing is that when a word is well established as a swear word, it seems to lose its original meaning; that is, it loses the thing that made it into a swear word. A word becomes an oath because it means a certain thing, and, because it has become an oath, it ceases to mean that thing.

- Author: [George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md)
- Book: [Down and Out in Paris and London](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell#Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London_(1933)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london/the-whole-business

## More from this book

> He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him), and took a sort of pleasure in thinking that human affairs would never improve. Sometimes, he said, when sleeping on the Embankment, it had consoled him to look up at Mars or Jupiter and think that there were probably Embankment sleepers there. He had a curious theory about this. Life on earth, he said, is harsh because the planet is poor in the necessities of existence. Mars, with its cold climate and scanty water, must be far poorer, and life correspondingly harsher. Whereas on earth you are merely imprisoned for stealing sixpence, on Mars you are probably boiled alive. This thought cheered Bozo, I do not know why. He was a very exceptional man.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london/he-was-an-embittered.md)

> I only realized during my last week that I was being cheated, and, as I could prove nothing, only twenty-five francs were refunded. The doorkeeper played similar tricks on any employee who was fool enough to be taken in. He called himself a Greek, but in reality he was an Armenian. After knowing him I saw the force of the proverb "Trust a snake before a Jew and a Jew before a Greek, but don't trust an Armenian."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london/i-only-realized.md)

> It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london/it-is-fatal.md)