This quote is spoken by the character O'Brien during a pivotal moment in the novel, and it encapsulates Orwell’s chilling view of totalitarian regimes.

“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 the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”