1984 Quotes

Freedom is..... (Winston wrote it in his diary near beginning of novel. O'Brien confrontes him with it when torturing him)

Freedom is..... (Winston wrote it in his diary near beginning of novel. O'Brien confrontes him with it when torturing him)

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. (O'Brien goes on to say... "And if the Party says that it is not four but five— then how many?" "Four" (Winston says and then he is shocked with immense pain))

"You are a slow learner, Winston," said O'Brien gently. "How can I help it?" He blubbered. "How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four." ....

"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Some-times they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane." (Pg 207)

(O'Brien) Will you understand, Winston , that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about...

We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them. (Pg 209)

(O'Brien) "The first thing for you to understand is that in this place there are no martyrdoms. You have read of the religious persecution of the past. In the Middle Ages there was the Inquisition. It was a failure. It set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it...

For every heretic it burned at the stake, thousands of others rose up. Why was that? Because the Inquisition killed its enemies in the open, and killed them while they were still in repentant; in fact, it killed them because they were unrepentant. (Pg 209)

When Winston is given a series of questions to ask he asks what you have done with Julia to O'Brien. He smiles and says it was a textbook case and that he has never seen anyone convert so promptly. Winston says, "You tortures her"...

"O'Brien left this unanswered. 'Next question,' he said. (Pg 214)

Winston. Asks "What is in Room 101?" ...

"The expression on O'Brien's face did not change. He answered drily: 'You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101.'" (One's greatest fear. Everyone has something they literally can not stand no matter how hard they try. Pg 215)

(O'Brien) "You understand well enough how the Party maintains itself in power. Now tell me why we cling to power?"... (Winston remains silent knowing what O'Brien will say...)

(Party did not seek power for its own ends, but only for the good of the majority. That it sought power because men in the mass were frail, cowardly creatures who could not endure liberty or face the truth, and must be ruled over and systematically deceived by others who were stronger than themselves.) That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better... (pg 216)

(Only a sentence or so after previous quote...) The terrible thing, thought Winston, the terrible thing was that when O'Brien said this he would believe it. You could see it in his face. O'Brien knee everything. A thousand times better than Winston, he knew what the world was really like, in what degradation the mass of human beings lived and by what lies and barbarities the Party kept them there....

He had understood it all, weighed it all, and it made no difference: all was justified by the ultimate purpose. What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy? (Pg 216)

Important quote on power... (by O'Brien after Winston accuses them of ruling for their own good and because humans are not fit to govern themselves)

(Speaks of German Nazis and Russian Communists... never came to recognize their own motives. "They pretended, perhaps even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there Kay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seized power with the intention of relinquishing it.) Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish a dictatorship. (Pg. 217)