Brave New World –Aldous Huxley

I finished reading it a few weeks ago, but wanted to remember this one quote before it went back to the library:

“They say that it is fear of death and of what comes after that makes men turn to religion as they advance in years. But my own experience has given me the conviction that, quite apart from any such terrors or imaginings, the religious sentiment tends to develop because, as the passions grow calm, as the fancy sensibilities are less excited and less excitable, our reason becomes less troubled in its workings, less obscured by the images, desires and distractions, in which it used to be absorbed; whereupon God emerges as from behind a cloud; our soul feels, sees, turns towards the source of all light; turns naturally and inevitably; for now that all that gave to the world of sensations its life and charm has begun to leak away from us, now that phenomenal existence is no more bolstered up by impressions from within or from without, we feel the need to lean on something that abides, something that will never play us false–-a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth. Yes, we inevitably turn to God; for this religious sentiment is of its nature so pure, so delightful to the soul that experiences it, that it makes up to us for all our other losses.” *

*This was actually a quote within the book, and its original source was not clearly indicated. “The Imitation of Christ” and “The varieties of Religious Experience” (William James), however, were both mentioned in the same chapter.