“He did not know how long she had been looking at him, but perhaps
for as much as five minutes, and it was possible that his features had
not been perfectly under control. It was terribly dangerous to let your
thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a
telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an
unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything
that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something
to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face.....was itself a
punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak:
facecrime, it was called.”
George Orwell, 1984
