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Aldous Huxley Quotes (1894-1963)
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About Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 β 22 November 1963) was a British author known for his novel Brave New World. He was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley and younger brother of Julian Huxley.
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Aldous Huxley quotes.
βThe indispensible is not necessarily the desirable.β
βSeveral excuses are always less convincing than one.β
βNever have so many been manipulated so much by so few.β
βExperience teaches only the teachable...β
βAn unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling falsehood.β
βA totally unmystical world would be a world totally blind and insane.β
βDeath is the only thing we haven't succeeded in completely vulgarizing.β
βTo his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.β
βTo talk about religion except in terms of human psychology is an irrelevance.β
βStupidity or reason? Oh, there was no choice now. It was imbecility every time.β
βWhat the cinema can do better than literature or the spoken drama is to be fantastic.β
βWho is going to educate the human race in the principles and practice of conservation?β
Aldous Huxley Quotes by Topic
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Aldous Huxley on Significance 6 quotes
βIn the mescaline experience the implied questions to which the eye responds are of another order. Place and distance cease to be of much interest. The mind does its perceiving in terms of intensity of existence, profundity of significance, relationships within a pattern.β
Aldous Huxley on Perennial philosophy 6 quotes
βThe Perennial Philosophy is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, βtat tvam asiβ (that art thou); the Atman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with Brahman, the Absolute Principle of all existence; and the last end of every human being, is to discover the fact for himself, to find out who he really is.β
Aldous Huxley on Intellectual 4 quotes
βAn intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.β
Aldous Huxley on Happiness 3 quotes
βI'd rather be unhappy than have the sort of false, lying happiness you were having here.β
Aldous Huxley on Hinduism and other religions 3 quotes
βThe Indians admit the right of individuals with different dharmas to worship different aspects or conceptions of the divine. Hence the almost total absence, among Hindus and Buddhists, of bloody persecutions, religious wars and proselytizing imperialism.β
Aldous Huxley on Theosophical mysticism 3 quotes
βSo far, then, as a fully adequate expression of the Perennial Philosophy is concerned, there exists a problem in semantics that is finally insoluble. The fact is one which must be steadily borne in mind by all who read its formulations. Only in this way shall we be able to understand even remotely what is being talked about. Ch 3β
Aldous Huxley on Godhead 3 quotes
βIn regard to manβs final end, all the higher religions are in complete agreement. The purpose of human life is the discovery of Truth, the unitive knowledge of the Godhead. The degree to which this unitive knowledge is achieved here on earth determines the degree to which it will be enjoyed in the posthumous state. Contemplation of truth is the end, action the means.β
Aldous Huxley on History 2 quotes
βMost historical facts are unpleasant.β
Aldous Huxley on Apocalypse 2 quotes
βAt your mouth, white and milk-warm sphinx, I taste a strange apocalypse:β
Aldous Huxley on Progress 2 quotes
βThere's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.β
Aldous Huxley on Propaganda 2 quotes
βThe propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.β
Aldous Huxley on Human sexual activity 2 quotes
βMr. Mercaptan went on to preach a brilliant sermon on that melancholy sexual perversion known as continence.β
What Aldous Huxley Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Aldous Huxley shared regarding contemporaries.
Aldous Huxley on D. H. Lawrence 2 quotes
βIsnβt it remarkable how everyone who knew Lawrence has felt compelled to write about him? Why, heβs had more books written about him than any writer since Byron!β
Aldous Huxley on Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Aldous Huxley on Jim Morrison
βThere are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.β
Aldous Huxley on H. L. Mencken
βWe should welcome his appearance among us here, for we have sore need of critics who hate humbug.β
Aldous Huxley on Women
βBrought up in an epoch when ladies apparently rolled along on wheels, Mr. Quarles was peculiarly susceptible to calves.β
Aldous Huxley on John Ruskin
βThere are very few whose Utopias have in any detail come true, or have, like Ruskin's, remained a permanently fruitful ideal. In politics his influence has been entirely for good.β
Aldous Huxley on James Braid
βI have had occasion recently to look into the history of animal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred an fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesmer, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.β
Aldous Huxley on Franz Mesmer
βI have had occasion recently to look into the history of animal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred an fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesmer, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.β
Aldous Huxley on Baruch Spinoza
β...The more a man knows about individual objects, the more he knows about God. Translating Spinoza's language into ours, we can say: The more a man knows about himself in relation to every kind of experience, the greater his chance of suddenly, one fine morning, realizing who in fact he is...β
Aldous Huxley on Tiberius
βIf Gods are made in the image of men, cosmogonies reflect the forms of terrestrial states. In an empire ruled absolutely by one man the notion of an universe under the control of a single God seemed obvious and reasonable.... The Christian God was a magnified and somewhat flattering portrait of Tiberius and Caligula.β
Aldous Huxley on Caligula
βIf Gods are made in the image of men, cosmogonies reflect the forms of terrestrial states. In an empire ruled absolutely by one man the notion of an universe under the control of a single God seemed obvious and reasonable.... The Christian God was a magnified and somewhat flattering portrait of Tiberius and Caligula.β
Aldous Huxley on Marquis de Sade
βThe first hints of a philosophy of the ultimate revolution-the revolution which lies beyond politics an economics, and which aims at total subversion of the individual's psychology and physiology-are to be found in the Marquis de Sade, who regarded himself as the continuator, the consummator, of Robespierre and Babeuf.β
Quotes About Aldous Huxley
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Anthony Burgess on Aldous Huxley
βWe cannot deny its brilliance, its learning, its honest attempt to answer the big human question.β
J. G. Ballard on Aldous Huxley
βAldous Huxley was uncannily prophetic, a more astute guide to the future than any other 20th- century novelist. Even his casual asides have a surprising relevance to our own times. During the first world war, after America's entry, he warned: "I dread the inevitable acceleration of American world domination which will be the result of it all...Europe will no longer be Europe." His sentiment is widely echoed today, though too late for us to do anything about it. The worst fate for a prophet is for his predictions to come true, when everyone resents him for being so clear-eyed.β
Rachel Carson on Aldous Huxley
βI must comment briefly on Aldous Huxley's Island... Well I picked it up last night and just began rapidly leafing through it. What [her friend] sees in either of the Huxleys is quite beyond me...Running through what appears to be a completely confused and sort of nightmarish narrative, are stories of two women who were victims of breast cancer, including the deathbed scene of one of them!! Instead of being depressed, it made me so mad, I threw the book on the floor!β
Walt Disney on Aldous Huxley
βAlice in Wonderland fiend.β
Erika Dyck on Aldous Huxley
βMaria Huxley, Aldous Huxley's first wife, was a major influence on him and pushed Aldous to more deeply explore parapsychology and Indigenous rituals, largely through her own network of women.β
Nina Graboi on Aldous Huxley
βAldous Huxley's Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell as well as Alan Watts' The Joyous Cosmology spoke eloquently of the dimensions the psychedelics open up.β
Laura Huxley on Aldous Huxley 3 quotes
βAldous smiled; he knew what one can see in a dirty dish when the doors of perception are cleansed.β
Laura Archera Huxley Acknowledgements for on Aldous Huxley
βAbove all, it is to my husband that I owe my deepest thanks. At times, when intensely absorbed by a new idea, I would enthusiastically jot it down in an English that was not very English. His harshest criticism then would be, "Stop a minute-your English is getting just a little too eccentric!" There was never criticism without advice; there was always that extraordinary feeling of good will which is constantly present in him and of which, on this occasion, he gave with particular abundance.β
Ram Swarup on Aldous Huxley
βEuropean soldiers, traders, missionaries - later on ably assisted by its colonial ideologies and scholars - opened up the East to the influences of the West. But Huxley belonged to that small group of European thinkers and seekers who opened up the West to the influence of the East - a more arduous task and in the long run perhaps more important too. He did not seek this role, it was merely a bye-product of his search for truth. Huxley was one of the finest products of Europe - of a new Europe seeking its old roots, of a Europe no longer satisfied with mere technology and science and rationality but seeking a new dimension of the spirit, a Europe self-critical and in search. He was also a profound student of Europe's various traditions, religious, literary and artistic, and he discusses them with great knowledge, insights, authority and intimacy. In his hands, cultural Europe becomes alive. A critical discussion of Europe by such a sympathetic insider is meant to help, to fecundate; it can do no harm but will only help Europe in its spiritual rediscovery. In opening up to India and China, it would merely be opening up to an ancient tradition which was lost by her but preserved and developed in India and China.β
V. S. Pritchett on Aldous Huxley 2 quotes
βAldous Huxley's spell was the old Arnold-Huxley spell of an education, disseminated with wit from above. It was imposed by his mastery of the art of conversation.β
Bertrand Russell on Aldous Huxley
βYou could always tell by his conversation which volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica he'd been reading. One day it would be Alps, Andes and Apennines, and the next it would be the Himalayas and the Hippocratic Oath.β
The Contemporary English Novelist on Aldous Huxley
βMr. Aldous Huxley, who is perhaps one of those people who have to perpetrate thirty bad novels before producing a good one, has a certain natural β but little developed β aptitude for seriousness.β
Misattributed Quotes
Quotes mistakenly credited to Aldous Huxley
βThe only good that I can see in the demonstration of the truth of "Spiritualism" is to furnish an additional argument against suicide. Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a "medium" hired at a guinea a sΓ©ance.β
βMedical science has made such tremendous progress that there is hardly a healthy human left.β
About Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 β 22 November 1963) was a British author known for his novel Brave New World. He was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley and younger brother of Julian Huxley.