The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

the door is locked; and nobody will come. The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes,

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting.

the door is locked; and nobody will come. The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes

I will be good,” it says. “Please let me out. I will be good!” They never answer.

to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.

But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else.