She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead, that from the moment of declaring war on the Party it was better to think of yourself as a corpse. ‘We are the dead,’ he said.
– George Orwell
1984. Part 2, Chapter 3. Winston points out to Julia that their struggle against the party will to nothing to help them, but future generations will benefit.