In recent weeks I have been able to spend some time catching up on that bizarre genre of fiction sometimes called "dystopian" (or anti-utopian, if you prefer to differentiate between the two. The Wikipedia article on dystopia has a great explanation). The most recent novel I finished, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, had a very meaningful dialogue near the end of the novel that I felt was necessary to share.

On happiness

"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." - pg 221

On God and Man

"One of the numerous things in heaven and earth that these philsophers didn't dream about was this, (he waved his hand, us, the modern world. 'You can only be independent of God while you've got youth and prosperity; independence won't take you safely to the end.' Well, we've now got youth and prosperity right up to the end. What follows? Evidently, that we can be independent of God. 'The religious sentiment will compensate us for all our losses.' But there aren't any losses for us to compensate; religious sentiment is superfluous." - pg 233

Thought-provoking novel. Check it out, add it to your library. I have linked to it and other recent reads of mine over here.