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On this day in 1950, Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, died from tuberculosis in London at the age of 46.  As a 47 year old myself, it is amazing and humbling to think of all that he accomplished before his untimely death.  This includes the following novels:

• Burmese Days (1934) 
• A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935) 
• Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
• Coming Up for Air (1939)
• Animal Farm (1945)
• Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

As someone concerned with language and it’s usage, Orwell provided six rules for writers in his work "Politics and the English Language:"

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive voice where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Here are a few quotes from Orwell for your consideration.

“At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.”

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

“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.”

"On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time."