30 Paramount Brave New World Quotes
Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley.
Set in a futuristic World State, the novel follows the lives of a few characters in a society that rests around genetic engineering, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning.
Written in 1931 and published in 1932, the book has two adaptations for film, in 1980 and 1998, and one for TV series, in 2020.
Despite being frequently banned by libraries and schools, Brave New World influenced many later dystopian novels and the science-fiction genre in general.
Below, you can find the best Brave New World quotes with page numbers.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 and 2
All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 1, Page 17
Chapter 3
No civilization without social stability. No social stability without individual stability.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 3, Page 48
Wheels must turn steadily, but cannot turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as steady as the wheels upon their axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 3, Page 49
You can’t consume much if you sit still and read books.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 3, Page 59
There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 3, Page 63
Chapter 4 and 8
Those who meant well behaved in the same way as those who meant badly.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 4, Page 75
Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly-they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 4, Page 83
When people are suspicious with you, you start being suspicious with them.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 4, Page 84
Chapter 10 and 12
The greater a man’s talents, the greater his power to lead astray.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 10, Page 176
What fun it would be if one didn’t have to think about happiness!(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 12, Page 212
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One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 12, Page 214
Chapter 16
Our world is not the same as Othello’s world. You can’t make flivvers without steel – and you can’t make tragedies without social instability. The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 16, Page 263
Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations 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.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 16, Page 265
We don’t want to change. Every change is a menace to stability.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 16, Page 269
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.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 16, Page 270
Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can’t.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 16, Page 273
Happiness has got to be paid for. You’re paying for it, Mr. Watson – paying because you happen to be too much interested in beauty. I was too much interested in truth; I paid too.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 16, Page 274
Chapter 17 and 18
We are not our own any more than what we possess is our own. We did not make ourselves, we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We are not our own masters.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 17, Page 278
God isn’t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That’s why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 17, Page 281
One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 17, Page 288
It is natural to believe in God when you’re alone – quite alone, in the night, thinking about death…(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 17, Page 282
In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 17, Page 285
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.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 17, Page 288
I ate civilization. It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then, I ate my own wickedness.(Modern Library, ed. 1956), Chapter 18, Page 289