A Brave New World by Alduous Huxley

---42---

"Stability. No civilization without social stability. No social stability without individual stability."

---49---

"Government'san affair of sitting, not hitting. You rule with the brains and the buttocks, never with the fists."

---64---

"Bernard gave his orders in the sharp, rather arrogant and even offensive tone of one who does not feel himself too secure in his superiority."

---65---

"The mockery made him feel like an outsider; and feeling like an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self conciously on his dignity."

---70---

Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly--they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced."

---90---

"But I do. . . It makes me feels as though. . . as though I were more me, if you see what I mean. More on my own, not so completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body. "

---148---

"Murder kills only the individual--and, after all, what is an individual?We can make a new one with the greatest ease-- as many as we like.  Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes Society itself. "

---157---

"Success went fizzily to Bernard's head, and in the process completely reconciled him (as any good intoxicant should do) to a world which, up until then, he had found very unsatisfactory. In so far as it recognized him as important, the order of things was good."

---221---

"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations 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."

---222-3---

"Only an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices, for the good reason that for him they aren't sacrifices; they're the line of least resistance. His conditioning has laid down rails along which he's got to run. He can't help himself; He's fordoomed. Even after decanting he's still inside a bottle--an invisible bottle of infantile and embryonic fixations. Each one of us, of course, goes through life inside a bottle. But if we happen to be Alphas, our bottles are, relatively speaking, enormous. We should suffer acutely if we were confined in a narrower space."

---223---

"The optimum population is modelled on the iceberg--eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above."

---228---

"One can't have something for nothing. 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."

---233---

"Yes, we inevitably turn to God; for this religious sentiment is of its nature so pure, so delightful to the soul the experiences it, that it makes up to us for all our other losses."

---235-6---

"The gods are just. No doubt. But their code of law is dictated, in the last resort, by the people who organize society; Providence takes its cue from men."

Unwind By Neal Shusterman (Unwind Series)

Note about the author: Neal Shusterman is a critically acclaimed author whose book "Unwind" is now commonly taught in schools. Although it is categorized as Young Adult fiction due to the writing style, I would suggest people of all ages read it. It is a blatant satire that does not even try to hide its alignments with our society (no worrying about the meaning behind the blue curtains, if you catch my drift). The best part of it is that it gets you thinking about issues in ways you may not have before. Take no detail for granted when reading this book. Even the seemingly insignificant details will come back as part of the big picture.

***Unwind***

"Stupid dreams. Even the good ones are bad, because they remind you how poorly reality measures up."

"I remember thinking, if a baby was going to be so unloved, why would God want it brought into the world?"
 
'"Hold this." She puts the baby in Connor's arms. It's the first time she's given it to him. It feels much lighter than he expected. Something so loud and demanding ought to be heavier.'

“In a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn’t a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.”
 
“One thing you’ve learned when you’ve lived as long as I have—people aren’t all good, and people aren’t all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I’m pleased to be in the light."
 
"Wherever his journey now takes him, it doesn't matter, because he has already arrived there in his heart. He's become like that briefcase in the ground - full of gems yet void of light, so nothing sparkles, nothing shines."
 
"You see, a conflict always begins with an issue - a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn't matter anymore, because now it's about one thing and one thing only: how much one side hates the other." Fav
 
“Which would be worse—to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make them go away before they were even born?”
(There are just under half a million children in the US foster care system alone. Half of those [a quarter million] are waiting to be adopted. That's more than tens of thousands...)
 
“Amazing that the bullies and victims can now work together to bring misery to others.”
(referring to the government) 
 
“Who can say what goes through the mind of a clapper in the moments before carrying out that evil deed? No doubt whatever those thoughts are, they are lies. However, like all the dangerous deceptions, the lies that clappers tell themselves wear seductive disguises…”
(clapper is the term for suicide bomber in the book)

Essentials of Sociology 9th ed. by James M. Henslin

"As surprising as it may sound, to have love as the main reason for marrying weakens marriage. In some depth of our being, we expect 'true love' to deliver constant emotional highs. This expectation sets people up for crushed hopes, as dissatisfactions in marriage are inevitable. When they come, spouses then to blame one another for failing to deliver the expected satisfaction." - Ch 1

"Efficiency brings dependability. You can expect your burger and fries to taste the same (referring to McDonalds) whether you buy them in Los Angeles or Beijing. Although efficiency also lowers princes, it does come at a cost. Predictability washes away spontaneity, changing the quality of our lives. It produces a sameness, a bland version of what used to be unique experiences. In my own travels, for example, has I taken packaged tours I never would have had the eye-opening experiences that have added so much to my appreciation of human diversity."  - Ch 5

"How can a legal system that proudly boasts "justice for all" be so inconsistent? . . With their large numbers, the working class and those below them pose a special threat to the power elite. Receiving the least of society's material rewards, they hold the potential to rebel and overthrow the current social order. To prevent this, the law comes down hard on its members who get out of line." - Ch 6  

"Poverty wears the same tired face wherever you are, I realized." - Ch 8
  
"Income inequality decreased from 1935 to 1970. Since 1970, the richest 20 percent of U.S. families have grown richer, while the poorest 20 percent have grown poorer." - Ch 8
   
"The average U.S. worker would have to work 2,800 years to earn the amount received by the highest-paid executive (Sanjay Jha, $104 million a year)." - Ch 8
 

Wicked Series by Gregory Maguire

***Wicked***

“Tis very strange men should be so fond of being thought wickeder than they are.” –Daniel Defoe, A System of Magick
  
“How deeply bound by the cords of family anger we all are. None of us breaks free.” 

***Son of a Witch***

"Under every roof, a story, just as behind every brow, a history."
   
"We are loping sequences of chemical conversions, acting ourselves converted. We are twists of genes acting ourselves twisted; we are wicks of burning neuroses acting ourselves wicked. And nothing to be done about it. And nothing to be done about it." Fav

   
"We are a fountain of shimmering contradictions, most of us. Beautiful in the concept, if we're lucky, but frequently tedious or regrettable as we flesh ourselves out."

   

"She was nuts as a nut tree in a nut forest, of course: that was what he had thought without realizing he was thinking anything at all."
   
"She had had lots of power, in her own way, but she had no more motherly instinct than a berserk rhino."
   
"A hundred ways to duck the question: how will I live with myself now that I know what I know?"
   
"Make way, make way; hail hail, the prince of ale."
   
"'Few hungry farmers are willing to extend Birds that courtesy, so those of us who talk tend to congregate in areas less frequented by human scum. My apologies, that was crude of me.'

'Don't apologize too fast, you don't know me very well.'"

   

How Class Works- Richard Wolff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGOA2WedIQo

 

"So if you're going to blame the victim, you have to explain why the victim took these blame worthy activities just then and not, for example, in the last hundred years." –9:30

"Because even though they became more and more productive for their employers, their employers did not raise their wages for the last thirty years. . . And had the employers not taken advantage of the market to stop raising wages. . . there would not have been this explosion of borrowing." –10:30

Misc: American Lit I

"There was a great Difference in Persons, and Discretion did not always accompany Years, nor was Youth always without it."

"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do."  – Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography [Part One].

"I have no doubt that time discriminates between the good and the bad."  – Henry Thoreau Walden Ch.2.

Maximum Ride Series (pt 1) by James Patterson

***The Angel Experiment***

“Life is a test. It’s all a test. Sometimes you have to get through it, and then later everything makes more sense.”

“Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?”

“Every journey begins with one step.”

“You never know until you know.”

“Never fight fair—that’s not how you win. Use every dirty trick you can. Expect pain. Expect to get hurt. If you’re surprised by the pain, you just lost.” Fav

“Knowledge is a terrible burden. It’s a two-edged sword. It might help you, but it might put you in danger greater than anything you’ve faced so far.” Fav

  “A web of answers is out there. If you can find the portal.” Fav

***School's Out Forever***

“You are a fridge with wings. We’re freaking ballet dancers.”

“You have to respect your enemy. Never, ever underestimate them. The second you do, they’ll squash you. Be smart about them. Respect their abilities, even if they don’t respect yours.”

“You’re kidding, right? Please tell me you have a stronger motive for me than ‘fair is fair’. Life isn’t fair. Nothing is fair, ever. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

***Da Vinci Code***

“Symbologists often remarked that France—a country renowned for machismo, womanizing, and diminutive insecure leaders like Napoleon and Pepin the Short—could not have chosen a more apt national emblem than a thousand-foot phallus.”

“It was man, not God, who created the concept of ‘original sin,’ whereby Eve tasted of the apple and caused the downfall of the human race. Woman, once the sacred giver of life, was now the enemy.” 

“Meaning that history is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books—books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon said, ‘What is history, but a fable agreed upon?’ By its very nature, history is always a one-sided account.”

“Authors, even the sane ones are nuts.”

“Is it surprising we feel conflicted about sex? Our ancient heritage and our very physiologies tell us sex is natural—a cherished route to spiritual fulfillment—and yet modern religion decries it as shameful, teaching us to fear our sexual desire as the hand of the devil.”