I know quite well that one needs ridiculous, mad situations like that; one can't write really well about anything else. Why was that old fellow such a marvelous propaganda technician? Because he had so many insane, excruciating things to get excited about. You've got to be hurt and upset; otherwise you can't think of the really good, penetrating, X-rayish phrases.

Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.

Most of one's life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny.

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.