Happiness or Freedom

There were two in paradise and the choice was offered to them: happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness. No other choice. … They, fools that they were, chose freedom. Naturally, they longed for centuries afterwards for fetters, for the fetters of yore.

R-13 We (1924) by Yevgeny Zamyatin

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Context: The State poet R-13 describes the verse he is writing about the legend of paradise.

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Source: Record Eleven

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