“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. . . . We know that no one ever seizes 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 the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
— Nineteen Eighty-Four