The 42 Best Famous Phrases Of Aldous Huxley, A Dystopian Writer
Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) was a renowned philosopher and writer of essays and novels born in Godalming, England. Author of dystopian works of great value for the social criticism of his time, he achieved international popularity with Brave New World. He also has other books to his credit such as The Doors of Perception or The Island, equally acclaimed works.
In his tender youth, at only 16 years old, Huxley suddenly suffered an illness and was practically blind. With remarkable tenacity and willpower, Huxley learned to read Braille. Luckily, he was able to recover much of his vision over the years.
In this post we are going to know some of the best phrases of Aldous Huxley. They are famous quotes that have gone down in history for their depth.
1. An interesting lie can be uncovered by a boring truth.
About the power of manipulation, especially in the media.
2. Seeing ourselves as others see us is an extremely desirable gift.
The vision that others have of us and the gift of knowing how to recognize ourselves in those external views.
3. All men are gods to their dog. That’s why there are people who love their dogs more than men.
Controversial phrase about the affection between man and dog.
4. A real orgy is never as exciting as a pornographic book.
The best possible sex is in the imagination.
5. Knowing is relatively easy. Wanting and acting according to what one would like is always harder.
Pure knowledge against ethics.
6. Civilization is, among other things, the process by which primitive herds are transformed into a crude and mechanical analogy of the organic communities of social insects.
A great metaphor to understand the development of societies.
7. The bourgeois is the perfect domesticated human animal.
A criticism of small businessmen by Aldous Huxley.
8. There is at least one corner of the universe that you can surely improve, and that is yourself.
About the ability to promote change starting with oneself.
9. Happiness is never great.
According to this great quote from Huxley, there is always some aspect of our existence that can worry us.
10. We participate in a tragedy; In a comedy we only watch.
One’s own life story is always lived with a certain distressing touch.
11. Each generation thinks it can be smarter than the previous one.
A superb trait that characterizes evolution.
12. But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want true risk, I want freedom, I want kindness. I want the sin.
About his desire for freedom and risk.
13. Words can be like X-rays if used properly: they pass through everything. You read them and they transfer you. This is one of the things I try to teach my students: to write insightfully.
One of those Aldous Huxley phrases that show us his pedagogical side.
14. The good of humanity should consist in each person enjoying the happiness they can to the maximum, without diminishing the happiness of others.
Live and let live.
15. The neighbors that one never sees up close are the ideal and perfect neighbors.
Ironic phrase about life in community.
16. The silent man does not bear witness against himself.
One of the keys to discretion, according to Huxley.
17. Perhaps, only geniuses are true men.
A somewhat reductionist view of manhood.
18. There are three kinds of intelligence: human intelligence, animal intelligence and military intelligence.
About the types of intelligence, in a famous ironic quote by Aldous Huxley.
19. Love drives away fear and, reciprocally, fear drives away love. And not only does fear expel love; also to intelligence, goodness, every thought of beauty and truth, and only mute despair remains; and in the end, fear comes to expel humanity itself from man.
A quote about love and the experience of falling in love.
20. In most cases, ignorance is something that can be overcome. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.
Great reflection on our underexploited capabilities.
21. The more sinister the desires of a politician, the more pompous, in general, the nobility of his language becomes.
Demagoguery usually goes hand in hand with bombast and presumptuousness.
22. The secret of genius is to preserve the child’s spirit until old age, which means never losing enthusiasm.
A maxim that many great thinkers agree on.
23. Perhaps the greatest lesson of history is that no one learned the lessons of history.
One of Huxley’s phrases that have transcended the most.
24. Knowing the truth for yourself is never the same as having to hear it from someone else.
It is always more comforting to discover things for yourself.
25. Facts do not cease to exist even if they are ignored.
A sample of his philosophical materialism.
26. Wholeness is present even in the broken pieces.
Along the lines of the previous one.
27. Experience is not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you.
We are able to get ahead thanks to resilience and willpower.
28. Habit turns sumptuous pleasures into everyday needs.
Greatness is in authority, according to this phrase by Aldous Huxley.
29. Technological progress has only provided us with more efficient means to go backwards.
About the paradoxical regression that technological advances bring us.
30. Pain is a horror that fascinates.
Nothing more disturbing than seeing hundreds of people enjoying the suffering of others.
31. To doubt is to have two thoughts.
Between two waters, between two roads.
32. Where there is excessive specialization, an excess of organized division of labor, man is easily degraded to the level of a mere embodied function.
By not allowing ourselves to think globally, we become mere executors, alienated from the very activity that feeds us.
33. What we think determines what we are and what we do, and, conversely, what we do and what we are determines what we think.
Philosophical phrase from the great Aldous Huxley.
34. What the rite is for public worship, the spiritual exercises are for private devotion.
Good anthropological reflection.
35. Stupidity is, by the way, a product of will.
Whoever doesn’t learn is because they don’t want to.
36. The will can be strengthened by exercise and confirmed by perseverance.
It is not necessary to let it come by itself: the will must be pursued and trained.
37. The optimal population (…) is the one that looks like icebergs: eight-ninths below the waterline, and one-ninth above it.
Phrase taken from “Brave New World”, his most famous book.
38. Liberalism, of course, died of anthrax.
Another excerpt from his most famous work, about the ideology of freedom from capital.
39. Drapes, as I have now discovered, are much more than resources for the introduction of non-representational forms in naturalistic paintings and sculptures.
A reflection on the world of aesthetics.
40. Public spectacles currently play a role comparable to that played by religion in the Middle Ages.
One of those Huxley phrases in which he makes a parallel between two different historical moments.
41. What is needed is a new drug that will soothe and console our suffering species without doing more harm in the long run than it does in the short run.
Especially dystopian reflection.
42. In a world where education is predominantly verbal, highly educated people find it almost impossible to devote serious attention to anything other than words and notions.
A particular vision of the object of interest of widely educated people.
