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Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley Quotes

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Famous Aldous Huxley Quotes

“Wherever we turn we find that the real obstacles to peace are human will and feeling, human convictions, prejudices, opinions. If we want to get rid of war we must get rid first of all of its psychological causes. Only when this has been done will the rulers of the nations even desire to get rid of the economic and political causes.”

IfsWantFirstsHumansHas BeensWarRealDoneFeelingsPoliticalDesireTurnsNationsCausesOpinionEconomicPrejudiceConvictionObstaclesPsychologicalRulersHuman Will
Book:Ends and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals
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“In the course of evolution nature has gone to endless trouble to see that every individual is unlike every other individual....Physically and mentally, each one of us is unique. Any culture which, in the interests of efficiency or in the name of some political or religious dogma, seeks to standardize the human individual, commits an outrage against man's biological nature.”

MenHumansPoliticalCultureCoursesNamesIndividualInterestReligiousGoneTroubleEvolutionUniqueEndlessCommitDogmaEfficiencyOutrageReligious Dogma
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“The Perennial Philosophy is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, tat tvam asi ('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.”

HumansArtEndsSelfPhilosophyFactsLastsHuman BeingsExistencePrinciplesEternalAbsolutesFormulasBrahmanAtmanSanskrit
Book:The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West
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“Drill and uniforms impose an architecture on the crowd. An army's beautiful. But that's not all; it panders to lower instincts than the aesthetic. The spectacle of human beings reduced to automatism satisfies the lust for power. Looking at mechanized slaves, one fancies oneself a master.”

HumansBeautifulHuman BeingsPowerMastersArmySlaveInstinctOneselfCrowdsArchitectureLustFancyAestheticUniformsDrillsLust For Power
Book:The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Point counter point
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“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society.”

HumansWellsMayDoeHas BeensRealPoliticalSufferingFoundPoliticsVoiceExistenceStruggleNormalRelationAbsolutesVictimIllnessMental IllnessHopelessSymptomsNeuroticAbnormalHuman Voice
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“The Alexander Technique gives us all things we have been looking for in a system of physical education: relief from strain due to maladjustment, and constant improvement in physical and mental health. We cannot ask for more from any system; nor, if we seriously desire to alter human beings in a desirable direction, can we ask for any less.”

IfsGivingHumansHas BeensDesireAsksHuman BeingsAll ThingsConstantMental HealthDuesTechniqueImprovementReliefDesirableStrainPhysical EducationConstant Improvement
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“The moral peril to humanity of thoughtlessly accepting these conveniences [of materialism] (with their inherent disadvantages) as constituting a philosophy of life is now becoming apparent. For the implications of this disruptive materialism... are that human beings are nothing but bodies, animals, machines.”

HumansPhilosophyBodyLife IsHumanityHuman BeingsAnimalAcceptingMoralLife PhilosophyBecomingMachinesMaterialismInherentPerilConvenienceImplicationsDisadvantagesDisruptive
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“Human beings act in a great variety of irrational ways, but all of them seem to be capable, if given a fair chance, of making a reasonable choice in the light of available evidence. Democratic institutions can be made to work only if all concerned do their best to impart knowledge and to encourage rationality. But today, in the world's most powerful democracy, the politicians and the propagandists prefer to make nonsense of democratic procedures by appealing almost exclusively to the ignorance and irrationality of the electors.”

IfsWorldWayHumansMadeLightSeemsTodayActionPoliticalChoicesGivenChanceHuman BeingsPowerfulKnowledgeDemocracySocietyIgnorancePoliticianCapableEvidenceConcernedFairsElectionInstitutionsDemocraticAvailableVarietyAppealsNovelistsReasonableVotingNonsenseMost PowerfulIrrationalRationalityProceduresImpartCivil SocietyIrrationalityFreedom To ChooseChoose WiselyPolitical IdeologyPropagandist
Book:Complete Essays: 1956-1963, and supplement, 1920-1948
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“For at least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols”

HumansTwoPoliticalReligiousSpringThirdsMiseryStupidityIdolsIdealismBehalfZealMaliceDogmatismHuman StupidityProselytizing
Book:Huxley and God: Essays on Religious Experience
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“One third, more or less, of all the sorrow that the person I think I am must endure is unavoidable. It is the sorrow inherent in the human condition, the price we must pay for being sentient and self-conscious organisms, aspirants to liberation, but subject to the laws of nature and under orders to keep on marching, through irreversible time, through a world wholly indifferent to our well-being, toward decrepitude and the certainty of death. The remaining two thirds of all sorrow is homemade and, so far as the universe is concerned, unnecessary.”

ThinkingWorldHumansWellsPersonsTwoSelfLawOrderUniversePayConditionsSubjectsSorrowConsciousConcernedThirdsEndureCertaintyWell BeingLiberationHuman ConditionInherentIndifferentUnnecessaryOrganismsLaws Of NatureSelf ConsciousIrreversibleHomemadeCertainty Of Death
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“That’s what the human brain is there for—to turn the chaos of given experience into a set of manageable symbols. Sometimes the symbols correspond fairly closely to some of the aspects of the external reality behind our experience; then you have science and common sense. Sometimes, on the contrary, the symbols have almost no connection with external reality; then you have paranoia and delirium. More often there’s a mixture, part realistic and part fantastic; that’s religion.”

HumansSometimesRealityTurnsGivenCommonBehindsBrainAspectConnectionsChaosContraryCommon SenseSymbolsFantasticRealisticMixturesParanoiaHuman BrainDeliriumManageable
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“Unless we choose to decentralize and to use applied science, not as the end to which human beings are to be made the means, but as the means to producing a race of free individuals, we have only two alternatives to choose from: either a number of national”

HumansMeanMadeTwoWarEndsUseIndividualHuman BeingsNumbersRaceAlternativesApplied Science
Book:The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world
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“It is because we don't know who we are, because we are unaware that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, that we behave in the generally silly, the often insane, the sometimes criminal ways that are so characteristically human. We are saved, we are liberated and enlightened, by perceiving the hitherto unperceived good that is already within us, by returning to our eternal ground and remaining where, without knowing it, we have always been.”

KnowsWayHumansSometimesLightHeavenKnowingEternalCriminalsSavedSillyKingdomsInsaneBehaveWho We AreEnlightenedLiberatedKingdom Of Heaven
Book:The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West
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“Consider the problem of over-population. Rapidly mounting human numbers are pressing ever more heavily on natural resources. What is to be done?... The annual increase of numbers should be reduced. But how? We are given two choices -- famine, pestilence and war on the one hand, birth control on the other. Most of us choose birth control.”

ShouldHumansTwoWarDoneProblemHandsChoicesGivenNaturalNumbersBirthResourcesIncreasePopulationFamineNatural ResourcesAnnualsBirth ControlPestilenceTwo Choices
Author:Aldous Huxley
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“One of the many reasons for the bewildering and tragic character of human existence is the fact that social organization is at once necessary and fatal. Men are forever creating such organizations for their own convenience and forever finding themselves the victims of their home-made monsters.”

MenHumansMadeReasonCharacterFactsHomeSocialExistenceForeverFindingsCreatingOrganizationVictimMonstersTragicConvenienceHuman ExistenceSocial Organization
Book:Complete Essays: 1939-1956
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