A Brave New World

The Savage nodded, frowning. "You got ride of them. Yes, that's just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether 'tis better in the mid to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them . . . But you don't do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It's too easy.

"What you need," the Savage went on, "is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here.

"Exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune, death, and danger dare, even for an eggshell. Isn't there something in that?" he asked, looking up at Mustapha Mond. "Quite apart from God--though of course God would be a reason for it. Isn't there something in living dangerously?"

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."

Suddenly it was as though the whole air had come alive and were pulsing, pulsing with the indefatigable movement of blood. Up there, Malpais, the drums were being beaten. Their feet fell in with the rhythm of that mysterious heart; they quickened their pace.

Aldous Huxley, A Brave New World