There is an awful lot of difference between reading something and actually seeing it, for you can never tell, till you see it, just how big a liar History is.

-Will Rogers

"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."

-Napoleon

History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.

-Sir Winston Churchill

1984 consists of the understanding of the government taking control of everything, including past events. By making the Party seem like they have not failed mankind and they are doing good deeds rather than bad ones, they re-write their own versions of the past in the Ministry of Truth. Winston and other people tend to forget their memories, because they are erased by Inner Party members such as O'Brien. Since the Party controls the present, they control the past and the future because everything about the Party's ideology is in the re-written books. This is why Winston states these important quotes:

"And when memory failed and written records were falsified;when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested."

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDSOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

This is the Party's main quote. According to the Party, it means:

General opponent keeps the people of Oceania unified

A person who is independent is destined to fail

Failure of the people to be familiar with these contradictions cements the influence of the controlling government