Aldous Huxley was a visionary writer and philosopher whose ideas and insights continue to captivate readers around the world. From his exploration of the nature of reality in “The Doors of Perception” to his warnings about the dangers of mass society in “Brave New World,” Huxley’s work challenges us to think deeply about the world around us and to consider the implications of our actions.
In this blog, we have curated a collection of some of the most thought-provoking and inspiring Aldous Huxley quotes. These quotes cover a wide range of topics, from the importance of education and critical thinking, to the need for compassion and understanding in a rapidly changing world. Whether you’re a student, a writer, or just someone who loves to explore new ideas and perspectives, Huxley’s words are sure to stimulate your mind and spark your imagination.
So take some time to explore this collection of Aldous Huxley quotes, and see how his insights can help you navigate the challenges and complexities of modern life. Whether you’re seeking inspiration for your work, your relationships, or your personal growth, Huxley’s words offer a wealth of wisdom and guidance. From his observations on the power of language and the nature of consciousness, to his reflections on the role of art and spirituality in human life, Huxley’s legacy continues to inspire us to explore the mysteries of the universe and to seek meaning and purpose in our lives.
Ultimately, the legacy of Aldous Huxley is not just his writing, but also his enduring spirit of curiosity, exploration, and inquiry. His words remind us of the importance of questioning the status quo, of embracing diversity and difference, and of striving for a better world for all. So let us celebrate the wisdom and insight of Aldous Huxley, and let his quotes inspire us to think deeply, to live fully, and to always keep searching for the truth.
Phrases
-People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
-The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free.
-The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.
-Medical science has made such tremendous progress that there is hardly a healthy human left.
-Never have so many been manipulated so much by so few.
-Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
-The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.
-Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.
-There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
-… the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.
-Love casts out fear; but conversely fear casts out love. And not only love. Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth.
-As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends correspondingly to increase. And the dictator will do well to encourage that freedom…it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate.
-Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
-Liberties are not given, they are taken.
-If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.
-Dictators can always consolidate their tyranny by an appeal to patriotism.
-People often ask me what is the most effective technique for transforming their life. It is a little embarrassing that after years and years of research and experimentation, I have to say that the best answer is – just be a little kinder.
-A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.
-The world is an illusion, but an illusion which we must take seriously.
-Hitler’s vast propaganda successes were accomplished with little more than the radio and loudspeaker, and without TV and tape and video recording . . . Today the art of mind control is in the process of becoming a science.
-Every ceiling reached becomes a floor.
-The goal in life is to discover that you’ve always been where you were supposed to be.
-The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.
-Democracy can hardly be expected to flourish in societies where political and economic power is being progressively concentrated and centralized. But the progress of technology has led and is still leading to just such a concentration and centralization of power.
-Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.
-Liberty, as we all know, cannot flourish in a country that is permanently on a war footing, or even a near war footing. Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of everybody and everything by the agencies of central government.
-Medical science is making such remarkable progress that soon none of us will be well.
-After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
-That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.
-The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.
-One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.
-Reality cannot be ignored except at a price; and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and more terrible becomes the price that must be paid.
-Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity.
-Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.
-The more you know, the more you see
-The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm.
-An intellectual is a person who’s found one thing that’s more interesting than sex.
-If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely.
-Wherever the choice has had to be made between the man of reason and the madman, the world has unhesitatingly followed the madman.
-The question of the next generation will not be one of how to liberate the masses, but rather, how to make them love their servitude.
-Beware of being too rational. In the country of the insane, the integrated man doesn’t become king. He gets lynched.
-We shall be permitted to live on this planet only for as long as we treat all nature with compassion and intelligence.
-To be a fool at the right time is also an art.
-Man is hypnotized by the glitter of his own gadgetry
-Experience teaches only the teachable.
-You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.
-Higher education is not necessarily a guarantee of higher virtue.
-life is short and information endless: nobody has time for everything
-An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.
-which is better – to be born stupid into an intelligent society or intelligent into an insane one?
-There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that is your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterwards, when you have worked on your own corner.
-Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.
-Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
-A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention.
-It’s a little embarrassing that after 45 years of research & study, the best advice I can give people is to be a little kinder to each other.
-Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying.
-When the sun rises, it rises for everyone.
-Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice.
-No social stability without individual stability.
-Addiction is an increasing desire for an act that gives less and less satisfaction
-Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.
-People intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they really are.
-Man is unique in organizing the mass murder of his own species.
-Liberty? Why it doesn’t exist. There is no liberty in this world, just gilded cages.
-Orthodoxy is the diehard of the world of thought. It learns not, neither can it forget.
-Don’t try to behave as though you were essentially sane and naturally good. We’re all demented sinners in the same cosmic boat – and the boat is perpetually sinking.
-I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.
-All that happens means something; nothing you do is ever insignificant.
-But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.
-It isn’t a matter of forgetting. What one has to learn is how to remember and yet be free of the past.
-Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.
-To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.
-My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.
-The third petition of the Lord’s Prayer is repeated daily by millions who have not the slightest intention of letting anyone’s will be done but their own.
-Good is a product of the ethical and spiritual artistry of individuals; it cannot be mass-produced.
-At this point we find ourselves confronted by a very disquieting question: Do we really wish to act upon our knowledge?