'Very hard ethical questions are involved,' he went on. 'You are to be made into a good boy, 6655321. Never again will you have any desire to commit acts of violence or to offend in any way whatsoever against the State's Peace. I hope you take all that in. I hope you are absolutely clear in your own mind about that.' I said:
'Oh, it will be nice to be good, sir.' But I had a real horrorshow smeck at that inside, brothers. He said:
'It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good. And when I say that to you I realize how self-contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?'
'Oh, it will be nice to be good, sir.' But I had a real horrorshow smeck at that inside, brothers. He said:
'It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good. And when I say that to you I realize how self-contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?'
~ Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange ~
When I started reading this quote, I thought, "That might be from Clockwork Orange." I have always enjoyed Kubrick's work.
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