An artist must create a personal cosmos, a verdant world in continuity with tradition, further fulfilling man’s “awareness,” his “degree of consciousness,” and bringing new subtilization, vision and beauty to the elements of experience. It is in this way that the Idea, powered by conviction and necessity, will create its own style, and the singular, momentous structure capable of realizing its intent.
“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.”
Aldous Huxley | Brave New World