Some enjoyable quotes from The Prisoner

Just some fun things to think about when one's day is dreary... Patrick McGoohan as Number 6 with other people as other numbers... in an attempt to reduce one man to a mere number. The following excerpted from here.

“Honour is the natural expression of a democratic society.”
--A sign from the Labour Exchange; Episode: Arrival

“Of the People, by the people, for the people.”
--A sign; Episodes: Arrival, It's Your Funeral

“I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own.”
--No.6; Episode: Arrival
This is the quintessential quote from the series... and a society that tries to stop it? Gets Prisoners, and some not that docile at all.

New No.2: “Good day, Number Six.”
No.6: “Number what?”
New No.2: “Six. For official purposes, everyone has a number. Yours is number 6.”
No.6: “I am not a number, I am a person.”
--Episode: Arrival
And so is the last. Telling on what society may expect and not receive if it is so unwary as to push people into large categories. Square pegs and round holes are only the beginning...

No.2: “We can treat folly with kindness . . . knowing that soon his wild spirits will quieten, and the foolishness will fall away to reveal a model citizen.”
No.6: “That day you'll never see.”
--Episode: Dance of the Dead

No.2: “Are you going to run?”
No.6: “Like the blazes; first chance I get.”
No.2: “I meant, run for office?”
--Episode: Free For All
My sentiments *exactly*.

No.6 (addressing the crowd during a campaign rally): “Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment, and will die here like rotten cabbages.”
--Episode: Free For All
Why, yes, lets have a one big happy planet and not offend *anyone* and live in peace... or pieces... strangely I actually *would* vote for someone that spoke their mind freely, if they were the only one running that did so. Better a clearly stated enemy than an oily friend you can never trust.

No.2 [scanning book]: “Does not take sugar.” [chuckle] “ Frightened of putting on weight?”
No.6: “No, nor being reduced.”
--inside the Green Dome; Episode: Chimes of Big Ben

No.6: “I'm gonna escape and come back.”
No.2: “Escape and come back . . . ?”
No.6: “Ah, yes--escape, come back, wipe this place off the face of the earth, obliterate it . . . and you with it.”
--inside the Green Dome; Episode: Chimes of Big Ben
To those who blithely categorize and wish to place individuals in a niche and have them conform to your ideas of what they are: This is what you can expect in return.

No.2 [scanning book]: “There. . .At the age of fifteen, top of his class in woodwork! That's the sort of thing! I mean, join in!”
No.6: “I'll make you a handle for this door.”
--inside the Green Dome; Episode: Chimes of Big Ben

No.6: “The whole earth as. . . `The Village'?”
No.2: “That is my hope. What's yours?”
No.6: “I'd like to be the first man on the moon!”
--Episode: Chimes of Big Ben
And exactly *why* do I want to colonize space and the stars? This explains it rather well.

A Judge: “We're not quite sure what it means.”
No.6: “It means what it is.”
--at the art exhibition; Episode: Chimes of Big Ben

Psychiatrist [aside to No.2 about No.6]: “ Interesting subject. I should like to know his breaking point.”
No.6: “Well, you could make that your life's ambition.”
--Episode: Checkmate

No.2: “Tell me. . .are you still as keen as ever to leave us?”
No.6: “Any more questions?”
--Episode: The General

No.6: “What are we all looking for?”
Professor's Wife: “Well, let's see. That gentleman over there. What do you think he's doing?”
No.6: “Tearing up a book.”
Professor's Wife: “He's creating a fresh concept. Construction arises out of the ashes of destruction. And that woman?”
No.6: “Standing on her head.”
Professor's Wife: “She's developing a new perspective.”
--Episode: The General
To those who wish to be nice to everyone and offend none: I do not want your new perspective nor your fresh concept.

No.6: “[The seal] is hollowed out, it's packed with explosives . . . ”
No.2: “And before I hand it over to my successor?”
No.6: “It will be detonated by radio!”
No.2 [pausing]: “I can think of better ways to die . . . ”
No.6: “And better causes to die for.”
--Episode: It's Your Funeral
Do you want to know where the idea for a willing, duped suicide bomber came from? This is it, so far as I can tell. This is the first marriage of ideology, technology and totalitarian control all used to an obscene end. The Number 2 will be departing and replaced... or dearly departed as the case may be.
Absolutely chilling.

Committee Member: “We deplore your spirit of disharmony.”
No.6: “That's a common complaint around here, isn't it?”
--Episode: A Change of Mind

No.2: “I assure you, that no matter what significance you may hold for me, to the Village and its Committee, you are merely Citizen Number Six, who has to be tolerated, and if necessary, shaped to fit.”
No.6: “Public Enemy Number Six.”
--Episode: A Change of Mind

No.6: “To borrow one of Number Two's sayings: `The butcher with the sharpest knife . . . has the warmest heart.' ”
--Episode: A Change of Mind

No.2: “You missed, boy. You still can't [kill]!”
No.6: “I'm sorry, sorry . . .”
No.2: “Sorry!? You're sorry for everybody. Is that why you resigned??”
--Episode: Once Upon a Time
So long as society wants you alive *for* something, options are at hand. Number 2 and the Village controllers miss this, as do we in life. When your life is no longer valued and you are only offered death... then that hard choice is upon you... think hard... for all its inhumanity the Village still *needs* willing cooperation. It will kill unless it values something within an individual highly. So long as that thing is retained and not given, there are options left.

“He has revolted. Resisted. Fought. Held fast. Maintained. Destroyed resistance. Overcome coercion. The right to be a person, someone or individual. We applaud his private war, and concede that despite materialistic efforts, he has survived intact and secure!”
--The President; Episode: Fall Out
To those who wonder why honor should be given to Poland, this sums it up. Conquered, divided, partitioned, reduced... but never subjugated. Keeping the Faith and their love of liberty, as Empires wash over them. And Poland always arises again and again and again. As with one man, so with a People who hold freedom dear.

“All that remains is . . . recognition of a man.”
--The President; Episode: Fall Out
Yes, so sorry not to be easily categorized. Your fault, not mine.