‘But I like the inconveniences.’
‘We don’t,’ said the Controller. ‘We prefer to do things comfortably.’
‘But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.’
‘In fact,’ said Mustapha Mond, ‘you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.’
‘All right then,’ said the Savage defiantly, ‘I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.’ –Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
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Great quote. 🙂 I feel like Huxley was getting at the crux problem with modernity: the very possibility of pain, unhappiness, and sorrow, when, truly, all of those answers can be found and answered in the crucifixion and, subsequently, the resurrection. Thanks for posting this!
Huxley’s “The Perennial Philosophy” was instrumental in pulling me away from postmodern skepticism and scientific materialism. Despite his heterodoxy, I find his penetrating critiques of modernity of the highest quality.
Vincit Omnia Veritas