"When asked whether he was not happier now that Jones was gone, he would say only 'Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey,' and the others had to be content with this cryptic answer."

"An impromptu celebration of the victory was held immediately. The flag was run up and Beasts of England was sung a number of times."

"At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was already ensconced on his bed of straw, under a lantern which hung from a beam."

"He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark - for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies."

"The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades. There were only four dissentients, the three dogs and the cat, who afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides."

"Major continued: 'I have little more to say. I merely repeat, remember always your duty of enmity towards Man and all his ways.'"

"Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character."

"Several nights a week, after Mr. Jones was asleep, they held secret meetings in the barn and expounded the principles of Animalism to the others. At the beginning they met with much stupidity and apathy."

"With the worthless parasitical human beings gone, there was more for everyone to eat. There was more leisure too, inexperienced though the animals were."

"Snowball also busied himself with organizing the other animals into what he called Animal Committees. He was indefatigable at this."

"Bulls which had always been tractable suddenly turned savage, sheep broke down hedges and devoured the clover, cows kicked the pail over, hunters refused their fences and shot their riders on to the other side."

"And yet the song was irrepressible. The blackbirds whistled it in the hedges, the pigeons cooed it in the elms, it got into the din of the smithies and the tune of the church bells."

"On every kind of pretext she would run away from work and go to the drinking pool, where she would stand foolishly gazing at her own reflection in the water."

"But there were also rumors of something more serious. One day as Mollie strolled blithely into the yard, flirting her long tail and chewing at a stalk of hay, Clover took her aside."

"It had come to be accepted that the pigs, who were manifestly cleverer than the other animals, should decide all questions of farm policy, though their decisions had to be ratified by a majority vote."

"Stone would have to be carried and built up into walls; then the sails would have to be made and after that there would be need for dynamos and cables. (How these were to be procured, Snowball did not say.)"

"They had all the more reason for doing so because the news of their defeat had spread across the countryside and made the animals on the neighboring farms more restive than ever."

"In glowing sentences he painted a picture of Animal Farm as it might be when sordid labour was lifted from the animals' backs."

"After the hoisting of the flag, the animals were required to file past the skull in a reverent manner before entering the barn."