How we cite our quotes: (Record.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Like all the other Numbers, I heard now only the senseless disorderly crackling of the chords. I laughed; I felt so light and simple." (4.11)
Happiness is defined by conformity here. The simple act of belonging to the State and its plans is enough to make D-503 happy. But the very fact that it leaves for a moment suggests that it's not permanent.
Quote #2
Accordingly the 0.2 which survived have enjoyed the greatest happiness in the bosom of the United State. But is it not clear that supreme bliss and envy are only the numerator and the denominator, respectively, of the same fraction, happiness? (5.3)
Here, happiness is being used to justify genocide: the vast majority of people wiped out so that the remaining tiny fraction could be happy. Way to go guys; we hope you chock on it!
Quote #3
"I continue to believe that I shall recover, that I may recover. I slept very well. No dreams or any other symptoms of disease." 12.1
Dreams here are seen as the antithesis of happiness: dreams are scary and leave troubled thoughts behind. So too is individuality, which in this book is like a disease that needs to be wiped out.
Quote #4
Yes, I love the fog, too. I love everything, and everything appears to me wonderful, new, tense; everything is so good! (15.7)
Our man seems to have changed his tune here, don't you think? Does this possibly suggest that happiness is a solely subjective thing, and by extension, that the State's idea of permanent happiness in its citizens is just a pipe dream?
Quote #5
You are perfect; you are mechanized; the road to one-hundred-percent happiness is open! (31.20)
Again, here the State is promising perfect happiness by submitting to it completely with the Operation. But if happiness is subjective as the book suggests earlier, is this really happiness?
Quote #6
Here I saw, with my own eyes, that laughter was the most terrible weapon: you can kill anything with laughter—even murder itself. (35.34)
This is a great representation of happiness as a weapon. It's a weapon used to control the minds of all of humanity, and the rebels wish to use this particular form to defy the One State. The One State denies itself weapons by denying such basic components of humanity.
Quote #7
There, angels, the slaves of God, are blissful, with surgically excised imaginations (which is why they are blissful). (36.9)
Is the author suggesting that bliss is unattainable: that as long as we are on this earth, we won't know real bliss, since the end of want and desire means the end of anything happening at all?
Quote #8
Before, everything revolved around the sun; now I know that everything revolves around me—slowly, blissfully, squinting its eyes… (13.29)
Happiness is expressed as perfect narcissism here: a neat reversal of the State's supremacy over all. But is the supremacy of the individual expressed in this quote any different, any less evil?