Important Quotations Explained
1. Mother,
monogamy, romance. High spurts the fountain; fierce and foamy the
wild jet. The urge has but a single outlet. My love, my baby. No
wonder those poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable.
Their world didn't allow them to take things easily, didn't allow
them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what
with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with
the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases
and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and
the poverty—they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly
(and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation),
how could they be stable?
2. Every
one works for every one else. We can't do without any one. Even
Epsilons are useful. We couldn't do without Epsilons. Every one
works for every one else. We can't do without any one. . . .
3. Ford,
we are twelve; oh, make us one,
Like drops
within the Social River;
Oh, make us now together
run
As swiftly as thy shining Flivver.
.
. .
Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun,
Kiss
the girls and make them One.
Boys at one with
girls at peace;
Orgy-porgy gives release.
4. A
gramme is always better than a damn . . . A gramme in time saves
nine . . . One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments . .
. Everybody's happy nowadays . . . Every one works for every one
else . . . When the individual feels, the community reels . . .
Never put off till to-morrow the fun you can have to-day . . . Progress
is lovely
5. And
if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow
happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the
facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile
you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In
the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great
effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow
two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be
virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in
a bottle. Christianity without tears—that's what soma is.
