Quotessence
Home / Authors / Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenPeopleHumansBrave New World FreedomBrave New World HappinessWorldIfsBrave New WorldBrave New World CharacterThinking

Famous Aldous Huxley Quotes

“Abused as we abuse it at present, dramatic art is in no sense cathartic; it is merely a form of emotional masturbation. It is the rarest thing to find a player who has not had his character affected for the worse by the practice of his profession. Nobody can make a habit of self-exhibition, nobody can exploit his personality for the sake of exercising a kind of hypnotic power over others, and remain untouched by the process.”

KindArtSelfCharacterFormActorsProcessActingPracticePlayerEmotionalPersonalityHabitExerciseArt IsAbuseSakeProfessionDramaticAffectedExploitsMasturbationExhibitionsCatharticHypnoticPower Over OthersActing From Actors
Author:Aldous Huxley
Create image

“I'm pretty good at inventing phrases - you know, the sort of words that suddenly make you jump, almost as though you'd sat on a pin, they seem so new and exciting even though they're about something hypnopaedically* obvious. But that doesn't seem enough. It's not enough for the phrases to be good; what you make with them ought to be good too.”

KnowsEnoughSeemsSleepOughtExcitingObviousBe GoodPhrasesSatPinsInventing
Book:Brave New World
Create image

“Men have always been a prey to distractions, which arethe original sins of the mind; but never before today has an attempt been made to organize and exploit distractions, to make of them, because of their economic importance, the core and vital center of human life, to idealize them as the highest manifestations of mental activity. Ours is an age of systematized irrelevances, and the imbecile within us has become one of the Titans, upon whose shoulders rests the weight of the social and economic system”

MenMindHumansMadeAgeTodaySocialSinEconomicActivityHighestWeightImportanceOriginalsCoreShouldersHuman LifeManifestationDistractionOrganizePreyExploitsEconomic SystemsOriginal SinImbecilesOrigin Of LifeTitansIrrelevance
Book:Huxley and God: essays
Create image

“What I may call the messages of Brave New World, but it is possible to make people contented with their servitude. I think this can be done. I think it has been done in the past. I think it could be done even more effectively now because you can provide them with bread and circuses and you can provide them with endless amounts of distractions and propaganda.”

PeopleThinkingWorldMayHas BeensDonePastAmountMessagesBraveEndlessBreadPropagandaDistractionNew WorldCircusServitudeBrave New WorldBread And Circuses
Author:Aldous Huxley
Create image

“A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.”

WorldStatesStoriesCommunityFourIdentityBuildingLondonThirtyStabilityCentreGreyMottoShieldsConditioningEntrancesSquatBrave New World Freedom
Book:The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world
Create image

“If humans were in fact the members of a truly social species, and if their individual differences were trifling and could be completely ironed out by appropriate conditioning, then, obviously, there would be no need for liberty and the State would be justified in persecuting the heretics who demanded it.”

IfsNeedsHumansStatesFactsWould BeIndividualSocialDifferencesLibertyMembersSpeciesAppropriateJustifiedConditioningHereticTriflingIndividual Differences
Book:Complete Essays: 1956-1963, and supplement, 1920-1948
Create image

“"Consider the matter dispassionately, Mr. Foster, and you will see that no offence is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behaviour. Murder kills only the individual- and after all, wha is an individual? ". . . ." We can make a new one with the greatest of ease- as many as we like. Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself."”

MatterIndividualMurderMereStrikesEaseIndividualismBehaviourOffenceBrave New World Consumerism
Author:Aldous Huxley
Create image

“Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, have one grave defect: they are gratuitous. A love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate among the lower classes. . . . it was essential that they should keep on going to the country, even though they hated it.”

ShouldCountryNatureClassEssentialsDecidedRateBusyGravesLandscapeHatedFactoriesDefectsAbolishNature LoveLower Class
Book:The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world
Create image

“The brotherhood of men does not imply their equality. Families have their fools and their men of genius, their black sheep and their saints, their worldly successes and their worldly failures. A man should treat his brothers lovingly and with justice, according to the deserts of each. But the deserts of every brother are not the same.”

MenShouldDoeBlackJusticeBrotherFoolGeniusTreatsSaintDesertBrotherhoodSheepWorldlyBrotherhood Of ManBlack Sheep
Book:Complete Essays: 1926-1929
Create image

“You can't make flivers without steel - and you can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they're so conditioned that they pratically can't help behaving as they ought to behave.”

PeopleWorldWantLoveFeelsWellsChildrenHelpingAgeMotherPassionFatherSocialWifeOughtLoversSafeTragedyIllIgnorantOld AgeBehaveNot AfraidStableSteelInstabilityAfraid Of DeathBrave New World HappinessBrave New World FreedomBrave New World CharacterNot Afraid Of DeathBrave New World Lenina
Author:Aldous Huxley
Create image