"I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt"

This quote by George Orwell recommends that the expense of flexibility is not necessarily a consistent state of alertness, however rather a continuous state of messiness. This implies that in order to preserve our flexibility, we must be willing to accept the turmoil and disorder that comes with it. This could be interpreted as a metaphor for the method which democracy works, as it is typically unpleasant and chaotic, however ultimately permits us to keep our liberty. It might also be translated as a caution that in order to maintain our liberty, we need to be willing to accept the messiness that comes with it. Simply put, we should be willing to accept the dirt and condition that features flexibility in order to keep it. Eventually, this quote serves as a suggestion that liberty is not totally free, which it features a price.