Premiering in 2022, the four main characters of Apple TV+’s Severance work at Lumon, which could be described as a cultish tech company, if one were speaking in kind terms. Each of the protagonists –Mark, Irving, Dylan, and Helly – has undergone a procedure to split their consciousness into two separate states, thereby severing their memories. Their “outie” version steps into the elevator, descends, and when the elevator doors open, has transformed into their “innie” – the part of their being that only knows about what happens at work, and has no recollection or knowledge of their lives outside of the office. In 2025, the show has developed a cult-like following, with the second season reaching over three billion streaming minutes, making Severance quotes for work required corporate reading.
SPOILERS AHEAD: PROCEED CAREFULLY SO AS NOT TO RISK YOUR SPOT IN THE OUTDOOR RETREAT and TEAM BUILDING OCCURRENCE (ORTBO).
Praise Keir: The good news about Hell
Throughout Severance, any mention of Kier Eagan, the founder of Lumon, is met with nearly god-like reverence by employees… until it’s not. The center of his kingdom is the corporate headquarters where white, pristine, labyrinth-like hallways work overtime in an apparent effort to conceal the dark truths lurking beneath the surface.
Like all gods, Eagan has a plethora of oil paintings and art dedicated to memorializing him and the story of Lumon, although many of those pieces have alternate versions – an agile way to seamlessly pivot from one platform of truth to another, if you will.
(Out here in the real world, corporate employees may struggle to recognize the parallels between religion and corporate culture that’s so prominently woven throughout Severance, as certainly they’ve rarely encountered such a thing).
- “The good news is hell is just the product of a morbid human imagination. The bad news is whatever humans can imagine, they can usually create.” (S1.E1) – Harmony Cobel: Nothing like an inspirational pep talk on your first day at work.
- “Hey, I know this has been a tough quarter. I’m gonna see about rustling you up some special perks. That sound good?” (S1.E7) – Seth Milchick: Definitely, definitely with no resemblance to employees in corporate America, the employees in Severance are in a continual state of … amazement when it comes to the perks and rewards offered by Lumon management. Examples of said benefits: A Music Dance Experience (MDE), Egg Social Bar, finger trap toys, Melon Bar, and the ultimate reward: the Waffle Party.
- “We have never owned an electric grouter and we look forward to the many happy memories it will provide.” “Nothing says ‘Christmas’ like grouting.” (S2.E7) – Gemma: Better than a subscription to the Jelly of The Month Club, perhaps?
- “How many more must I give?”
(S2.E10) – Lorne: Managers to executives as they’re forced to reduce staff – again. - “My job is to scroll through this spreadsheet and look for numbers that are scary?” (S1.E2) – Helly R: In juxtaposition to the real corporate world, the characters in Severance don’t find fulfillment in spreadsheet work.
- “I will be conducting your monthly performance review. This review can take anywhere from two to six hours, depending on the number of atonements and approbations required.” (S2.E5) – Mr. Drummond: … and reviews will continue until morale improves.
- “The work is mysterious and important.”
(s1.E4) – Mark: Corporate employees may want to take note of this line and use it when asked what you actually do at your job. - “I’m here tonight to tell you that we are on the verge of a revolution. A kind and empathetic revolution that puts the human being at the center of industry.” (S1.E9) – Natalie Kalen, PR rep: And the crowd goes mild.
- “You are sparing with the facial encouragements.” (S1.E6) – Irving: Constructive feedback for the win.
- “I’ll ready the refreshments. You focus on the mournful signage.” (S2.E5) – Milchick: Green room before announcing layoffs, probably.
- “But surely beer and juleps cannot fill the void left by love. Indeed only wine can achieve this, but it is famously costly, which is why sadness is among the most recurrent issues facing the poor.” (S2.E3) – Ricken Hale: The leadership gap defined.
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“The truth you seek lies within The Fourth Appendix.”
(s2.E4) – Milchick: Sadly, The Fourth Appendix was saved in OneDrive, and has yet to be re-located.
- “Yeah, well, with the market readjustment from a few years ago and the fluctuating interest rates, there was a retrenchment from some of the core infrastructure investments.” (S2.E8) – Hampton: If you know, you know.
- “I’ve wanted to pummel Mark myself, but I am his employer.” (S1.E1) – Harmony Cobel: If this was pre– or post-HR training, we’ll never know.
Corporate life: CIA field manual on how employees use simple sabotage in an organization
Written to thwart the rise of fascism, the CIA Simple Sabotage Field Manual detailed how to subvert an organization with "purposeful stupidity." Some might call the 1944 publication a timeless corporate wonder... or a how-to guide.
The You You Are: Severance quotes for work, manifesto-style
Dr. Ricken Hale is the author of inspirational self-help books, one of which makes it down to the severed floor. The book, titled “The You You Are”, is filled with empty language and quotes that corporate solipsists tend to love, but was actually written to inspire the innies to revolt against their Lumon overlords. (Hale has first-hand experience of the damage wrought by the decision to sever; he’s also the brother-in-law of Mark, one of the main characters).
Members of the Macrodata Refinement team (MDR) hide the book, then share what they’ve read with their coworkers. This leads them to question their very existence – as well as the morality of those who created them.
From cringe-worthy to revolution-inspiring, following are some of the best Severance quotes from “The You You Are”:
- “A society with festering workers cannot flourish, just as a man with rotting toes cannot skip.”
- “What separates man from machine is that machines cannot think for themselves. Also they are made of metal, whereas man is made of skin.”
- “A good person will follow the rules. A great person will follow himself.”
- “Bullies are nothing but BULL and LIES.”
- “At the center of industry is ‘dust’.”
- “If you are a soldier, do not fight for my freedom. Fight for the freedom of the soldier fighting next to you.”
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“Our job is to taste free air. Your so-called boss may own the clock that taunts you from the wall, but, my friends, the hour is yours.”
- “Should you find yourself contorting to fit a system, dear reader, stop, and ask if it’s truly you that must change, or the system.”
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“They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist.”
Ultimately, Hale’s words do as he dreamed: the MDR team secretly collaborates and triggers the Overtime Contingency Protocol, which allows the innies to awaken in the outside world, taking over their outie selves for a brief, but critical, time.
Devour feculence: Ideas and inspiration, via quotes from Severance
Initially wary upon learning about the existence of other departments on their floor, MDR team members quickly realize they’ve much in common with the coworkers they’ve been taught to fear. Stilted corporate-speak gives way to hope and idealism as they realize that courage begets courage.
Along the road to redemption and reinvention, Severance quotes offer possible email subject lines that are certain to elicit high click rates, such as:
- “What have you done, little mouse?”
- “They know everything we’re doing.”
- “May I introduce choreography and merriment.”
- “I think you wanna do what’s right.”
- “Doug Graner is dead. […] The Board finds this deeply troubling.”
- “I don’t know what’s gotten into you people today.”
- “You’ve been living a nightmare for two years”
- “Point number one: 🦆 you.”
- “Hey. Can I get a little help?”
- “The efficacy test will begin shortly.”
- “I guess this is the part where I should tell you to go to Hell… except you’re already here.”
- “I have to leave.”
- “Page 197 slaps.”
- “My wife’s being held prisoner at Lumon and I just got brain surgery in my basement.”
Severance quotes also provide potential email signatures, like:
- “Revel now in the fruit of your labors.”
- “Child. Do not test me.”
- “You pretended to care about me pretty well.”
- “Why do you bring nothing but woe into my life?”
- “Thank you for that feedback, Seth.”
- “You don’t value me; you fear me.”
- “Tell her to drop dead for me.”
- “And remember: hang in there!”
- ” 🦆 you, Lumon/it’s never enough.”
- “And until you get that through your mildewed little brain and hit quota, MDR’s hallway privileges are hereby revoked.”
- “The important thing is you find someone it seems you can trust, and you tell them everything.”
At the end of season two, the innies realize that when banded together rather than turned against one another, they have the potential to influence the leadership decisions of Lumon Enterprises. Some of the inspirational quotes from Severance that powered a revolution include:
- “And of course, the best photographs are of groups of happy friends. But I think camaraderie is more than smiling together in photos. It’s standing together in hard times. It’s recognizing a common struggle in another person and reaching out to offer them a loving hand.”
- “Whatever this life is, it’s all we have. And we don’t want it to end. Can you understand that?”
- “This desk used to have four seats. Our friend Irving is gone, and they want our whole department gone. If he gets out, we’re dead. They’re gonna turn us off like f*cking machines. You’ve seen them do it. I know you’ve lost friends, too. And you could be next.”
- “If the Eagan philosophy is illumination above all – then why doesn’t that include us? Why are we down here still working in the dark?”
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“They give us half a life and think we won’t fight for it.”
The surest way to tame a prisoner is to let him believe he’s free: The woe, frolic, dread, and malice of corporate life
Confounding performance reviews, highly questionable rewards and punishments, leadership lacking empathy, a mysterious board that isn’t seen nor heard – except via a corporate translator; these are concepts that Severance viewers may initially struggle to comprehend. Indeed, the massive popularity of the series could be seen as a promising indicator that the working class is capable of expanding their intellectual horizons by embracing such imaginative notions.
Quotes from Severance that may or may not resonate to people working in corporations:
- “Some residual trauma is to be expected after such an ordeal.”
(S2.E5) – Mr. Drummond - “I am a person. You are not. I make the decisions. You do not.”
(S1.E4) – Helly R. - “I welcome your contrition.”
(S2.E2) – Mrs. Cobel - “Go lick a boot, Mark.”
(S1.E4) – Helly R. - “Well, it’s rare to meet a sophisticate.”
(S1.E2) – Burt G. - “Tight department like us gotta keep our synergy up.”
(S1.E3) – Felicia - “The impression you’ve left on me is indelible, though I’m unaware of it on a conscious level, and…I will never forget any of you, even though sitting here right now, I have no recollection of actually ever meeting you and no idea of your names or any of your physical characteristics or even how many of you there are.”
(S1.E7) – Burt Goodman - “….if you want a hug, go to hell and find your mother.”
(S1.E4) – Harmony Cobel - “The team I thought I knew would have processed more thoughtfully.”
(S2.E4) – Milchick - “I think you’ve overestimated your contributions.”
(S2.E3) – Helena - “I mean, I’m 99% sure there was no coup.”
(S1.E3) – Mark
The severed innies working at Lumon Industries have never warmed their faces in the sun, nor seen the sky. Created to do the work that the elite don’t want to do, they know only the mundane and dark side of corporate life, ultimately making them ripe for rebellion.
Cesar A. Cruz famously said, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. Only upon viewing Severance can one decide which category they fall into – and what lessons – if any – they’ll glean from it.
Service, meet your brand savior.
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