Aldous Huxley Quotes

Powerful Aldous Huxley for Daily Growth

About Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), an influential English writer known for his dystopian novel 'Brave New World', was born in Godalming, Surrey, England on June 26th, 1894. Raised in a family of intellectuals, he was the eldest son of prominent economist Leonard Huxley and Jessie Leda Chance, granddaughter of Thomas Henry Huxley, a leading figure in the development of modern evolutionary theory. Huxley attended Eton College before studying at Balliol College, Oxford where he was inspired by the works of George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells, both of whom would significantly influence his writing. His first novel, 'Crome Yellow' (1921), revealed a talent for satire that continued to develop in his later works. In 1923, Huxley moved to Italy where he wrote 'Antic Hay', a satirical work that criticized the contemporary culture of materialism and spiritual emptiness. However, it was his next novel, 'Brave New World' (1932), which established him as one of the foremost voices in dystopian literature. Set in a future society ruled by technology and consumerism, the novel warned against the dangers of a world without individuality or freedom. During his life, Huxley traveled extensively, residing in various countries including Mexico, India, and California. These experiences led to books like 'The Doors of Perception' (1954), an account of his experiences with psychedelics, and 'Island' (1962), a utopian novel that contrasted starkly with the dystopia of 'Brave New World'. Throughout his career, Huxley produced over fifty books on a wide range of subjects including literature, philosophy, politics, and mysticism. His works continue to be read and studied worldwide, offering insightful commentary on society, humanity, and the human condition. Aldous Huxley died in Santa Barbara, California on November 22nd, 1963.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The greatest tragedy of life is not death, but life without vigor."

This quote by Aldous Huxley underscores the importance of vitality and passion in living a fulfilling life. He suggests that it's more regrettable to exist without enthusiasm or energy than to perish. In essence, he encourages us to seize opportunities, pursue our passions, and live life with purpose and zest.

"There are things known and there are things unknown, in between are the doors of perception."

This quote emphasizes that human knowledge is limited, and there's a vast realm of understanding beyond our current comprehension, often referred to as the "mysteries" or "unknowns" of life. Huxley suggests that to access this unknown, we need to expand our perception – our way of seeing and interpreting reality. It implies that opening our minds to new perspectives, whether through learning, spiritual growth, or personal transformation, can lead us to a deeper understanding of the world and ourselves.

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

This quote emphasizes that truth or reality does not depend on human perception, acknowledgment, or attention. Ignoring facts, events, or truths doesn't make them disappear; they remain as they were. It is a reminder for us to actively seek knowledge, understand the world, and confront realities instead of avoiding or denying them, as ignoring facts can have lasting consequences on our actions, decisions, and eventually our society.

"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him."

This quote by Aldous Huxley suggests that our perception and interpretation of events (experience) are shaped by how we choose to respond or act upon them, rather than simply being passive recipients. It emphasizes the importance of individual agency in shaping one's life narrative and personal growth through experiences, as opposed to viewing oneself as a mere victim of circumstances.

"Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire."

Aldous Huxley's quote signifies that time and the individual are inextricably linked. He conveys a sense of existentialism by suggesting that an individual's life (represented as 'substance') is shaped by the river (time), but at the same time, the individual himself becomes the river. In addition, Huxley paints a picture of constant change and destruction, using the metaphor of a tiger devouring him and fire consuming him. Yet he also identifies with these destructive forces, implying that growth, transformation, and even death are integral parts of his own existence. In essence, Huxley expresses the idea that an individual is both controlled by and in control of time, embodying its flow while simultaneously being shaped by it.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

- Aldous Huxley

Attitude, Which, Means, Age

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.

- Aldous Huxley

Truth, Lie, May, Thrilling

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

- Aldous Huxley

Truth, Know, Shall, Mad

There isn't any formula or method. You learn to love by loving - by paying attention and doing what one thereby discovers has to be done.

- Aldous Huxley

Love, Doing, Method, Formula

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

- Aldous Huxley

Technology, Going, Means, Efficient

Sons have always a rebellious wish to be disillusioned by that which charmed their fathers.

- Aldous Huxley

Wish, Always, Dad, Rebellious

Cynical realism is the intelligent man's best excuse for doing nothing in an intolerable situation.

- Aldous Huxley

Doing, Nothing, Excuse, Realism

Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.

- Aldous Huxley

Boredom, Rather, Symbol, Agreeable

Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.

- Aldous Huxley

Point Of View, Influenced, Subjects

Orthodoxy is the diehard of the world of thought. It learns not, neither can it forget.

- Aldous Huxley

Thought, World, Forget, Orthodoxy

Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay.

- Aldous Huxley

Good, Other, However, Cultured

An intellectual is a person who's found one thing that's more interesting than sex.

- Aldous Huxley

Person, More, Found, Intellectual

The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own.

- Aldous Huxley

War, Politics, Fact, Monstrous

What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.

- Aldous Huxley

Another, About, Trained, Monstrous

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.

- Aldous Huxley

Been, Cocoon, Arrested, Adult

Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.

- Aldous Huxley

Beauty, Than, Holder, Beholder

Habit converts luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities.

- Aldous Huxley

Luxurious, Necessities, Converts

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

- Aldous Huxley

Brainy, Doors, Known, Unknown

Science has explained nothing; the more we know the more fantastic the world becomes and the profounder the surrounding darkness.

- Aldous Huxley

World, More, Surrounding, Fantastic

The quality of moral behavior varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.

- Aldous Huxley

Number, Inverse, Involved, Ratio

Official dignity tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.

- Aldous Huxley

Country, Which, Inverse, Ratio

Feasts must be solemn and rare, or else they cease to be feasts.

- Aldous Huxley

Rare, Cease, Else, Feast

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.

- Aldous Huxley

Give, Gods, Them, Homemade

A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor.

- Aldous Huxley

Death, Hands, Though, Behaving

Words, words, words! They shut one off from the universe. Three quarters of the time one's never in contact with things, only with the beastly words that stand for them.

- Aldous Huxley

Words, Shut, Beastly, Quarters

The vast majority of human beings dislike and even actually dread all notions with which they are not familiar... Hence it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have generally been persecuted, and always derided as fools and madmen.

- Aldous Huxley

Been, Madmen, Persecuted, First Appearance

That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep.

- Aldous Huxley

Blessed, Natural, Graces, Madder

Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves.

- Aldous Huxley

Always, Bottom, Readers, Preachers

A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.

- Aldous Huxley

Country, Perfectly, Trained, Modern War

Man approaches the unattainable truth through a succession of errors.

- Aldous Huxley

Truth, Through, Unattainable, Errors

Like every man of sense and good feeling, I abominate work.

- Aldous Huxley

Work, Like, Every Man, Good Feeling

I'm afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.

- Aldous Huxley

Afraid, Like, Celery, Obscurity

Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength.

- Aldous Huxley

Strength, Soul, His, Stillness

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

- Aldous Huxley

Mind, Powerful, Original, Solitude

A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will's freedom after it.

- Aldous Huxley

Lunch, May, Optimistic, Pessimistic

Most of one's life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

- Aldous Huxley

Effort, Prevent, Most, Prolonged

Hell isn't merely paved with good intentions; it's walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too.

- Aldous Huxley

Intentions, Yes, Them, Paved

The impulse to cruelty is, in many people, almost as violent as the impulse to sexual love - almost as violent and much more mischievous.

- Aldous Huxley

Love, Mischievous, Violent, Impulse

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.

- Aldous Huxley

Vision, Clarity, Remarkable, Ardor

It's with bad sentiments that one makes good novels.

- Aldous Huxley

Bad, Makes, Sentiments, Novels

Defined in psychological terms, a fanatic is a man who consciously over-compensates a secret doubt.

- Aldous Huxley

Doubt, Psychological, Terms, Defined

One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.

- Aldous Huxley

Patriotism, Nation, More, Fulfills

The finest works of art are precious, among other reasons, because they make it possible for us to know, if only imperfectly and for a little while, what it actually feels like to think subtly and feel nobly.

- Aldous Huxley

Other, Feels, Works, Nobly

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.

- Aldous Huxley

Lesson, Fact, Nothing, Enigmatic

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than 'try to be a little kinder.'

- Aldous Huxley

More, Been, Concerned, Kinder

My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.

- Aldous Huxley

Some, Extent, Directed, Passenger

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

- Aldous Huxley

Miserable, Will, Arise, Worship

Dream in a pragmatic way.

- Aldous Huxley

Dreams, Dream, Way, Pragmatic

From their experience or from the recorded experience of others (history), men learn only what their passions and their metaphysical prejudices allow them to learn.

- Aldous Huxley

Learn, Allow, Prejudices, Passions

The proper study of mankind is books.

- Aldous Huxley

Mankind, Study, Books, Proper Study

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

- Aldous Huxley

History, Important, Most, Lessons

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.

- Aldous Huxley

Learn, Important, Most, Lessons

It takes two to make a murder. There are born victims, born to have their throats cut, as the cut-throats are born to be hanged.

- Aldous Huxley

Born, Cut, Throats, Hanged

What we feel and think and are is to a great extent determined by the state of our ductless glands and viscera.

- Aldous Huxley

Think, Extent, Glands, Great Extent

You should hurry up and acquire the cigar habit. It's one of the major happinesses. And so much more lasting than love, so much less costly in emotional wear and tear.

- Aldous Huxley

Love, Emotional, More, Costly

Several excuses are always less convincing than one.

- Aldous Huxley

Always, Convincing, Than, Excuses

Chastity - the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions.

- Aldous Huxley

Most, Unnatural, Sexual, Chastity

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

- Aldous Huxley

Will, Over, Idealism, Gentlemen

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

- Aldous Huxley

Truth, Always, Personally, Experienced

Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying.

- Aldous Huxley

Race, Always, Everyone, Bullying

God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.

- Aldous Huxley

Civilization, Our Choice, Compatible

The author of the Iliad is either Homer or, if not Homer, somebody else of the same name.

- Aldous Huxley

Same, Either, Author, Iliad

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

- Aldous Huxley

Infinite, Most, Almost, Taking

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

- Aldous Huxley

Ignored, Exist, Cease, Cease To Exist

A fanatic is a man who consciously over compensates a secret doubt.

- Aldous Huxley

Man, Doubt, Over, Fanatic

De Sade is the one completely consistent and thoroughgoing revolutionary of history.

- Aldous Huxley

Consistent, Revolutionary, Sade

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

- Aldous Huxley

Forget, Other, Set, Propagandist

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

- Aldous Huxley

Interesting, Which, Read, Magnify

Europe is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image.

- Aldous Huxley

Art, Metaphysical, Image, Europe

What with making their way and enjoying what they have won, heroes have no time to think. But the sons of heroes - ah, they have all the necessary leisure.

- Aldous Huxley

Think, Making, No Time, Leisure

Bondage is the life of personality, and for bondage the personal self will fight with tireless resourcefulness and the most stubborn cunning.

- Aldous Huxley

Cunning, Most, Tireless, Bondage

There is something curiously boring about somebody else's happiness.

- Aldous Huxley

Happiness, Boring, Else, Curiously

To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.

- Aldous Huxley

Pet, Napoleon, His, Popularity

That all men are equal is a proposition to which, at ordinary times, no sane human being has ever given his assent.

- Aldous Huxley

Human Being, Which, Given, Assent

If human beings were shown what they're really like, they'd either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

- Aldous Huxley

Like, Hang, Another, Beings

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

- Aldous Huxley

Nature, Consistent, Only, Consistency

The most distressing thing that can happen to a prophet is to be proved wrong. The next most distressing thing is to be proved right.

- Aldous Huxley

Next, Happen, Most, Distressing

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

- Aldous Huxley

Travel, Discover, Other, Wrong

Amour is the one human activity of any importance in which laughter and pleasure preponderate, if ever so slightly, over misery and pain.

- Aldous Huxley

Over, Which, Slightly, Human Activity

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.

- Aldous Huxley

Freedom, Efficiency, Total, Anarchy

Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.

- Aldous Huxley

Pleasure, Modern, Provides, Seems

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.

- Aldous Huxley

Education, Done, Like, Valuable

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

- Aldous Huxley

Music, Which, Inexpressible, Expressing

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

- Aldous Huxley

Motivational, Corner, Improving

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

- Aldous Huxley

Universe, Own, Corner, Improving

A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one, it comes as sincerely from the author's soul.

- Aldous Huxley

Bad, Sincerely, Author, Labor

Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.

- Aldous Huxley

Wisdom, Experience, You, Happens

Specialized meaninglessness has come to be regarded, in certain circles, as a kind of hallmark of true science.

- Aldous Huxley

Kind, Specialized, Hallmark, Certain

Happiness is a hard master, particularly other people's happiness.

- Aldous Huxley

Hard, Other, Particularly, Master

Those who believe that they are exclusively in the right are generally those who achieve something.

- Aldous Huxley

Believe, Right, Achieve, Generally

We are all geniuses up to the age of ten.

- Aldous Huxley

Age, Geniuses, Up, Ten

Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs.

- Aldous Huxley

Man, Servitude, His, Organs

Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself.

- Aldous Huxley

Thought, Before, Itself, Divided

It was one of those evenings when men feel that truth, goodness and beauty are one. In the morning, when they commit their discovery to paper, when others read it written there, it looks wholly ridiculous.

- Aldous Huxley

Beauty, Evenings, Read, Goodness

Perhaps it's good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he's happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?

- Aldous Huxley

Art, Artist, Against, Perhaps

There's only one effectively redemptive sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-will to make room for the knowledge of God.

- Aldous Huxley

God, Sacrifice, Only, Effectively

There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail.

- Aldous Huxley

Talent, Virtues, Avail, Substitute

We participate in a tragedy; at a comedy we only look.

- Aldous Huxley

Comedy, Only, Participate, Tragedy

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.

- Aldous Huxley

Nature, Equivalent, Walk

Every man's memory is his private literature.

- Aldous Huxley

Memory, Private, His, Literature

Speed provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.

- Aldous Huxley

Pleasure, Modern, Genuinely, Provides

People intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are.

- Aldous Huxley

Work, See, How, Themselves

Maybe this world is another planet's hell.

- Aldous Huxley

World, Planet, Another, Maybe

Experience teaches only the teachable.

- Aldous Huxley

Experience, Only, Teaches

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know.

- Aldous Huxley

Want, Know, Most, Ignorance

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