“Poverty frees them from normal standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work”

— George Orwell , book Down and Out in Paris and London

Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 1
Source: Down and Out in Paris and London
Context: The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people — people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from normal standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work. Some of the lodgers in our hotel lived lives that were curious beyond words.

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George Orwell 473

English author and journalist 1903–1950

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“Poverty frees them from normal standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work”

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