The 42 best famous quotes of Aldous Huxley
Aldous huxley (1894 - 1963) was a renowned philosopher and writer of essays and novels born in Godalming, England. Author of dystopian works of great value to the social criticism of his time, he achieved international popularity with A happy world. He also counts other books such as The doors of the perception or The island, equally acclaimed works.
In his tender youth, at just 16 years old, Huxley suddenly suffered an illness and was practically blind. With remarkable determination and willpower, Huxley learned to read Braille. Luckily, he was able to regain much of his vision over the years.
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Famous quotes and phrases by Aldous Huxley
Tireless traveler, Huxley reveals a world in which the forces of power dominate the masses at will, submissive and entertaining.
In this post we are going to know some of the best phrases of Aldous Huxley. They are famous quotes that have gone down in history for their depth.
1. An interested lie can be uncovered by a boring truth.
On the power of manipulation, especially in the media.
2. Seeing ourselves as others see us is an extremely convenient gift.
The vision that others have about us and the gift of knowing how to recognize us in those external looks.
3. All men are gods to their dog. That is why there are people who love their dogs more than men.
Controversial phrase about the affection between man and dog.
4. A real orgy is never as exciting as a pornographic book.
In the imagination is the best possible sex.
5. Knowing is relatively easy. Wanting and acting according to what one wants is always harder.
Pure knowledge against ethics.
6. Civilization is, among other things, the process by which primitive herds are transformed into a crude and mechanical analogy of the organic communities of social insects.
A great metaphor to understand the development of societies.
7. The bourgeois is the perfect domesticated human animal.
An Aldous Huxley Critique of Small Entrepreneurs.
8. There is at least one corner of the universe that you can surely improve, and that is yourself.
On the ability to promote change starting with oneself.
9. Happiness is never great.
According to this great Huxley quote, there is always some aspect of our existence that can concern us.
10. We participate in a tragedy; in a comedy we just watch.
The life story itself is always lived with a certain distressing touch.
11. Each generation thinks it can be smarter than the previous one.
A superb trait that characterizes evolution.
12. But I don't want the comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want true risk, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.
On his desire for freedom and risk.
13. Words can be like X-rays if used properly: they go through everything. You read them and they pass you through. This is one of the things I try to teach my students: to write penetratingly.
One of those phrases by Aldous Huxley that show us the pedagogical side of him.
14. The good of humanity must consist in each one enjoying to the maximum of the happiness that he can, without diminishing the happiness of the others.
He lives and lets live.
15. Neighbors that you never see up close are the ideal and perfect neighbors.
Ironic phrase about life in community.
16. The silent man does not bear witness against himself.
One of the keys to discretion, according to Huxley.
17. Perhaps only geniuses are true men.
A somewhat reductionist view of manhood.
18. There are three kinds of intelligence: human intelligence, animal intelligence, and military intelligence.
Over the Intelligence types, in an ironic famous quote from Aldous Huxley.
19. Love drives away fear and, reciprocally, fear drives away love. And not only does fear expel love; also to intelligence, goodness, all thoughts of beauty and truth, and only silent despair remains; and in the end, fear manages to expel humanity itself from man.
A quote about love and the experience of falling in love.
20. In most cases ignorance is something surmountable. We don't know because we don't want to know.
Great reflection on our under-exploited capabilities.
21. The more sinister the wishes of a politician, the more pompous, in general, becomes the nobility of his language.
Demagogy usually goes hand in hand with bombast and presumptuousness.
22. The secret of genius is to preserve the spirit of the child into old age, which means never lose enthusiasm.
A maxim in which many great thinkers agree.
23. Perhaps the greatest lesson in history is that no one learned the lessons of history.
One of Huxley's phrases that have transpired the most.
24. Knowing the truth for yourself is never the same as having to listen to it for another.
It is always more comforting to discover things for yourself.
25. The facts do not cease to exist even if they are ignored.
A sample of your philosophical materialism.
26. The whole is present even in the broken pieces.
In the line of the previous one.
27. The experience is not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you.
We are able to get ahead thanks to resilience and willpower.
28. Habit turns sumptuous pleasures into everyday necessities.
Greatness is in authority, according to this phrase by Aldous Huxley.
29. Technological progress has only provided us with more efficient means of going backwards.
On the paradoxical regression that technological advances bring us.
30. Pain is a horror that fascinates.
Nothing more disturbing than seeing hundreds of people enjoying the suffering of others.
31. Doubting is having two thoughts.
Between two waters, between two roads.
32. Wherever there is excessive specialization, an excess of organized division of labor, man is easily degraded to the level of mere bedridden function.
By not allowing ourselves to think globally, we become mere executors, alienated from the very activity that feeds us.
33. What we think determines what we are and what we do, and, reciprocally, what we do and what we are determines what we think.
Philosophical phrase of the great Aldous Huxley.
34. What the rite is for public worship, the spiritual exercises are for private devotion.
Good anthropological reflection.
35. Stupidity is indeed a product of the will.
Who does not learn is because he does not want to.
36. The will can be strengthened by exercise and confirmed by perseverance.
It is not necessary to let it come of itself: the will must be pursued and trained.
37. The optimal population... is the one that looks like icebergs: eight ninth parts below the waterline, and one ninth above it.
Phrase taken from "A happy world", his most famous book.
38. Liberalism, of course, died of anthrax.
Another excerpt from his most famous work, about the ideology of freedom of capital.
39. Drapes, as I have now discovered, are much more than resources for the introduction of unrepresentative forms into naturalistic paintings and sculptures.
A reflection on the world of aesthetics.
40. Public spectacles now play a role comparable to that played by religion in the Middle Ages.
One of those Huxley phrases in which he makes a parallel between two different historical moments.
41. What is needed is a new drug that will soothe and comfort our suffering species without doing more harm than good in the long run than it does in the short run.
Especially dystopian reflection.
42. In a world where education is predominantly verbal, highly educated people find it less than impossible to devote serious attention to anything other than words and notions.
A particular vision of the object of interest of widely educated people.