Aldous Huxley, (1969). Jesting Pilate. The diary of a journey.

Standing on the ramparts of the Jodhpur fort — on a level with the highest wheelings of the vultures, whose nests are on the ledges of the precipices beneath the walls — one looks down on to the roofs of the city, hundreds of feet below. And every noise from the streets and houses comes floating up, diminished but incredibly definite and clear, a multitudinous chorus, in which, however, one can distinguish all the separate component sounds — crying and laughter, articulate speech, brayings and bellowings and bleatings, the creak and rumble of wheels, the hoarse hooting of a conch, the pulsing of drums. I have stood on high places above many cities, but never on one from which the separate sounds making up the great counterpoint of a city's roaring could be so clearly heard, so precisely sifted by the listening ear. From the bastions of Jodhpur Fort one hears as the gods must hear from their Olympus — the gods to whom each separate word uttered in the innumerably peopled world below comes up distinct and individual to be recorded in the books of omniscience.

— Aldous Huxley on Jodhpur

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Standing on the ramparts of the Jodhpur fort — on a level with the highest wheelings of the vultures, whose nests are on the ledges of the precipices beneath the walls — one looks down on to the roofs of the city, hundreds of feet below. And every noise from the streets and houses comes floating up, diminished but incredibly definite and clear, a multitudinous chorus, in which, however, one can distinguish all the separate component sounds — crying and laughter, articulate speech, brayings and bellowings and bleatings, the creak and rumble of wheels, the hoarse hooting of a conch, the pulsing of drums. I have stood on high places above many cities, but never on one from which the separate sounds making up the great counterpoint of a city's roaring could be so clearly heard, so precisely sifted by the listening ear. From the bastions of Jodhpur Fort one hears as the gods must hear from their Olympus — the gods to whom each separate word uttered in the innumerably peopled world below comes up distinct and individual to be recorded in the books of omniscience." in the context of "Aldous Huxley, (1969). Jesting Pilate. The diary of a journey." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Jodhpur" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Aldous Huxley

About Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 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.