How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)
Quote #31
"What?" said Helmholtz, in astonishment. "But we're always saying that science is everything."
[…]
"Yes; but what sort of science?" asked Mustapha Mond sarcastically. "You've had no scientific training, so you can't judge. I was a pretty good physicist in my time. Too good—good enough to realize that all our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobody's allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustn't be added to except by special permission from the head cook." (16.54-7)
Aha! Mustapha draws a very important distinction here between the two types of science we've seen in Brave New World. The first is the sort of technology that enables the World State to control and govern. The second, however, is the kind of pure, motiveless, science-for-the-sake-of-knowledge that has been outlawed for its dangers. It is this second kind of science that needs to be muzzled, in Mustapha's eyes.
Quote #32
"Because, finally, I preferred this," the Controller answered. "I was given the choice: to be sent to an island, where I could have got on with my pure science, or to be taken on to the Controllers' Council with the prospect of succeeding in due course to an actual Controllership. I chose this and let the science go." After a little silence, "Sometimes," he added, "I rather regret the science. Happiness is a hard master—particularly other people's happiness. A much harder master, if one isn't conditioned to accept it unquestioningly, than truth." […] I'm interested in truth, I like science. But truth's a menace, science is a public danger. As dangerous as it's been beneficent. It has given us the stablest equilibrium in history. […] But we can't allow science to undo its own good work. That's why we so carefully limit the scope of its researches […]. We don't allow it to deal with any but the most immediate problems of the moment. All other enquiries are most sedulously discouraged." (16.65)
What is it about Mustapha's character that allows him to make the sacrifices he's made? His choice seems irrational—for a top-notch physicist to put a collar on science is baffling. Does Huxley adequately justify his behavior?
Quote #33
It's curious," he went on after a little pause, "to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. They seemed to have imagined that it could be allowed to go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else. Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to change even then. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered. Still, in spite of everything, unrestricted scientific research was still permitted. People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were the sovereign goods." (16.65)
Why does Mustapha find conflict between "truth and beauty" and "comfort and happiness"? The distinction he draws between them is false, as is the distinction drawn between "dangerous science" and "helpful science." Comfort stems from technology, which stems from invention, which comes from curiosity and probably discontent to begin with. Science for the sake of knowledge leads to science for practical purposes, and the very act of striving for truth and beauty is where happiness resides. This is why men like Bernard, Helmholtz, and John are so unhappy in this world of comfort—they're not striving for truth and beauty.