Brave New World Quotes

Context

This line was spoken by Mond in the novel Brave New World (1932), written by Aldous Huxley.

Near the end of Brave New World, John the Savage (who has grown up outside the worry-free dystopia) and Mustapha Mond (who is the World Controller of the worry-free dystopia) talk about God and belief, and Mond shows John some ancient books about God, who is a belief humanity has outgrown.

While Mond believes there probably is a God, he also believes that God presents himself as absent because humanity, having solved problems like old age, hunger, etc... all the things that cause people to turn to God...no longer needs God. Got that?

In this dystopia, babies are grown in bottles and brainwashed—er, hypnopaedia-ed—to hold certain beliefs. Mond is saying that this is the only reason anyone believes anything—because we're told to.

Where you've heard it

You've probably heard this specific quote only wherever Brave New World is quoted, but the idea that we believe things not because they're true but because we've been told to believe them is pretty much a founding philosophy of anyone who's ever tried to shake up society.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Yeah, quoting the World Controller (read: Controller of the World) is going to sound a little pretentious on its own. Quoting the World Controller's ideas about how everyone (but you, presumably) has been brainwashed just ratchets up the pretentiousness factor.