Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself.

“But that’s the price we have to pay for stability. You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art.

Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”

“that’s another item in the cost of stability. It isn’t only art that’s incompatible with happiness; it’s also science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled.”

We’ve gone on controlling ever since. It hasn’t been very good for truth, of course. But it’s been very good for happiness.

Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is.”