1984 Quotes

Everywhere stood the same solid unconquerable figure, made monstrous by work and childbearing, toiling from birth to death and still singing.

– George Orwell

1984. Part 2, Chapter 10. Winston begins to feel a hope for the future. He believes the Party will never overcome the proles – the working class of Oceania. But moments later the telescreen that has been hidden in the room speaks to Winston and Julia, the Thought Police smash down the door, and the pair are taken off to prison to be tortured and broken.

Oceanic society rests ultimately on the belief that Big Brother is omnipotent and that the Party is infallible. But since in reality Big Brother is not omnipotent and the party is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The keyword here is BLACKWHITE. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to BELIEVE that black is white, and more, to KNOW that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary.

– George Orwell

1984. Part 2, Chapter 9. Emmanuel Goldstein in his Theory and Practice of Oligarchic Collectivism.

If leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away.

– George Orwell

1984. Part 2, Chapter 9. Goldstein in his manifesto, explaining that if the wealth of Oceania were to be divided equally, it would prove difficult for the Party to maintain power. So the proles are kept in crushing poverty.

All the beliefs, habits, tastes, emotions, mental attitudes that characterize our time are really designed to sustain the mystique of the Party and prevent the true nature of present-day society from being perceived.

– George Orwell

1984. Part 2, Chapter 9. The all-controlling nature of totalitarianism is summed up here in this part of Emmanuel Goldstein’s manifesto. Winston and Julia only become aware of the full extent of the Party’s psychological control of people when they read the manifesto.

Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written record and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it.

– George Orwell

1984. Part 2, Chapter 9. Winston reading from Emmanuel Goldstein’s book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. A reminder of how the Party controls the past.

‘I am taking trouble with you, Winston,’ he said, ‘because you are worth trouble. You know perfectly well what is the matter with you. You have known it for years, though you have fought against the knowledge. You are mentally deranged. You suffer from a defective memory. You are unable to remember real events and you persuade yourself that you remember other events which never happened. Fortunately it is curable. You have never cured yourself of it, because you did not choose to. There was a small effort of the will that you were not ready to make. Even now, I am well aware, you are clinging to your disease under the impression that it is a virtue. Now we will take an example. At this moment, which power is Oceania at war with?’

– George Orwell

1984. Part 3, Chapter 2. Torturer O’Brien to Winston.

‘Do anything to me!’ he yelled. ‘You’ve been starving me for weeks. Finish it off and let me die. Shoot me. Hang me. Sentence me to twenty-five years. Is there somebody else you want me to give away? Just say who it is and I’ll tell you anything you want. I don’t care who it is or what you do to them. I’ve got a wife and three children. The biggest of them isn’t six years old. You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I’ll stand by and watch it. But not Room 101!’

– George Orwell

1984. Part 3, Chapter 1. The pleas of a fellow prisoner of Winson, who has a skull-like face and is dying of starvation. Winston will eventually be taken to Room 101.
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