How we cite our quotes: (Record.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"How could a government, even a primitive government, permit people to live without anything like our Tables—without compulsory walks, without precise regulation of the time to eat, for instance?" (3.8)
This is a sign of the extent of the State's repression: it's so deep that the citizens actually are afraid of being free.
Quote #2
"What difficulties our predecessors had in making music! They were able to compose only by bringing themselves to attacks of inspiration, an extinct form of epilepsy." (4.6)
Again, creativity and inspiration have been so thoroughly beaten out of people that they're considered types of mental illness. Now that's repression.
Quote #3
"Then suddenly a tear appeared in her blue eyes, then another, and a third fell straight on the open page." (4.16)
Repressed is not the same thing as nonexistent, of course, and as the book progresses, we see more and more signs of hidden emotions springing up. It's most apparent in O-90, whose desire to be a mother—the most natural desire in the world—ultimately wins out against a lifetime of State training.
Quote #4
"True, only about two tenths of the population of the globe did not die out. But how beautifully shining the face of the earth became when it was cleared of its impurities!" (5.3)
Look closely at the language here. It associates repression with words like "beautifully" and dismisses the death of billions as worthy sacrifices to that beauty. That's seriously messed up.
Quote #5
So it's natural that having subjugated Hunger (algebraically = to the sum of material goods), the One State began an offensive against the other master of the world—against Love. Finally, even this natural force was also conquered, i.e., organized and mathematicized, and around three hundred years ago, our historical Lex Sexualis was proclaimed: "Each cipher has the right to any other cipher as sexual product." (5.5)
The book posits Love as the last bastion against power. Repressing it—notably by reducing sex to a casual act you make appointments for—means repressing all traces of a chaotic world.
Quote #6
A faint crack like a shiver, in the tubes of the Machine… The prone body, covered with a light phosphorescent smoke; then, suddenly, under the eyes of all, it began to melt—to melt, to dissolve with terrible speed." (9.18)
More evidence of the State's power, and more specifically, what the State is. It's a machine—powerful and merciless—and human beings literally turn into smoke within it.
Quote #7
"We have helped God to conquer the devil definitively— it was this devil, you know, who urged people to violate what was forbidden and take a bite of that fatal freedom; he was the malicious snake. But our boot: on his head— crunch! And there: paradise is restored. Again we are simple-hearted innocents, like Adam and Eve. No more confusion about good and evil: everything is very simple, heavenly, childishly simple." (11.14)
Again, D-503 states that repression is actually a desirable thing. To be repressed is to be returned to simplicity, and with simplicity comes happiness. Unfortunately, the Garden of Eden is kind of closed for renovations in this society, and the innocence and happiness that D-503 speak about can never really exist.
Quote #8
"He had given us certificates testifying that we were ill, that we were unable to go to work. Thus I stole my work from the United State; I was a thief; I deserved to be put beneath the Machine of the Well-Doer." (13.23)
Repression here is very often a mental state. The State doesn't even need to send jackbooted thugs after its citizens. They're so consumed with guilt by any act of repression, that they'll turn themselves in.
Quote #9
"How do you know that nonsense isn't a good thing? If human nonsense had been nurtured and developed for centuries, just as intelligence has, then perhaps something extraordinarily precious could have come from it." 23.10
Here, the author recognizes the value of nonsense and foolishness as part of our human condition (Why else do you think Shmoop exists?). We need it to accomplish wonderful things—to find heights of creativity and inspiration in the face of our own shortcomings. By attempting to destroy it, the State has caused a great deal of damage to the human soul.
Quote #10
"What does it matter to you that I stay here alone? What does it matter to you if I don't want them to want things for me—if I want to want things for myself—if I want the impossible…?" (35.15)
A late inning act of defiance here, but also a reminder of what repression really is. By expressing agency over his life, the individual is revealing how much control the State holds over him—even the most basic personal desires are thought of as wrong.