WIST

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

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“A Case of Voluntary Ignorance,” Esquire (Sep 1956)

Not only does money speak; it also imposes silence.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Censorship and Spoken Literature,” Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1956)

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Distractions I,” Vedanta for the Western World [ed. Christopher Isherwood] (1945)

We are human because, at a very early stage in the history of the species, our ancestors discovered a way of preserving and disseminating the results of experience. They learned to speak and were thus enabled to translate what they had perceivd, what they had inferred from given fact and home-grown fantasy, into a set of concepts, which could be added to by each generation and bequeathed, a treasure of mingled sense and nonsense, to posterity.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Knowledge and Understanding,” Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Other Essays (1956)

Things are not what they seem; or, to be more accurate, they are not only what they seem, but very much else besides.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Man and Reality,” Vedanta for the Western World (ed. C. Isherwood) (1945)

We need grace in order to be able to live in such a way as to qualify ourselves to receive grace.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer — II” (1945)

The daily bread of grace, without which noting can be achieved, is given to the extent to which we ourselves give and forgive.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer — III” (1945)

I met, not long ago, a young man who aspired to become a novelist. Knowing that I was in the profession, he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition. I did my best to explain. ‘The first thing,’ I said, ‘is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen. After that you merely have to write.’

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Sermons in Cats,” Music at Night and Other Essays (1931)

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

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“The Rest is Silence,” Music at Night and Other Essays (1931)

Experience teaches only the teachable ….

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Tragedy and the Whole Truth,” Music at Night and Other Essays (1931)

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

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Variations on a Philosopher,” Themes and Variations (1950)

What the cinema can do better than literature or the spoken drama is to be fantastic.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Where are the Movies Moving?”, Essays Old and New (1926)

Too much consistency is as bad for the mind as it is for the body. Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Wordsworth in the Tropics,” Do What You Will (1929)

Human beings have a strong tendency toward rationality and decency. (If they had not, they would not desire to legitimize their prejudices and their passions.)

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Writers and Readers,” The Olive Tree and Other Essays (1936)

Our nature abhors a moral and intellectual vacuum. Passion and self-interest may be our chief motives, but we hate to admit the fact even to ourselves. We are not happy unless our acts of passion can be made to look as though they were dictated by reason, unless our self-interest can be explained and embellished so as to seem idealistic.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Writers and Readers,” The Olive Tree and Other Essays (1936)

At any given moment, life is completely senseless. But viewed over a period, it seems to reveal itself as an organism existing in time, having a purpose, trending in a certain direction.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
(Attributed)

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
(Attributed)

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

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
(Attributed)
Sometimes attrib. to "Immermann."

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
(Attributed)

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

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
(Attributed)
In Reader's Digest (1934).

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 (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
(Attributed, 1977)

Liberty, as we all know, cannot flourish in a country that is permanently on a war footing, or even a near war footing. Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of every body and everything by the agencies of central government.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World, Revisited, “Over-Population” (1958)

People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years’ War. That made them change their tune all right. What’s the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science first began to be controlled — after the Nine Years’ War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We’ve gone on controlling ever since. It hasn’t been very good for truth, of course. But it’s been very good for happiness. One can’t have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World, ch. 16 [Mustapha Mond] (1932)

Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrong-doing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World, Foreword to 1946 ed. (1932)

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

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Ends and Means (1937)

We don’t know because we don’t want to know.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Ends and Means, “Beliefs” (1937)

The church allows people to believe that they can be good Christians and yet draw dividends from armament factories, can be good Christians and yet imperil the well-being of their fellows by speculating in stocks and shares, can be good Christians and yet be imperialists, yet participate in war. All that is required of the good Christian is chastity and a modicum of charity in immediate personal relations.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Ends and Means, “Education” (1937)

 

One of the greatest 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 (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Eyeless in Gaza, ch. 17 (1936)

One Folk, One Realm, One Leader. Union with the unity of an insect swarm. Knowledgeless understanding of nonsense and diabolism. And then the newsreel camera had cut back to the serried ranks, the swastikas, the brass bands, the yelling hypnotist on the rostrum. And here once again, in the glare of his inner light, was the brown insectlike column, marching endlessly to the tunes of this rococo horror-music. Onward Nazi soldiers, onward Christian soldiers, onward Marxists and Muslims, onward every chosen People, every Crusader and Holy War-maker. Onward into misery, into all wickedness, into death!

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Island (1962)

Never give children a chance of imagining that anything exists in isolation. Make it plain from the very beginning that all living is relationship. Show them relationships in the woods, in the fields, in the ponds and streams, in the village and in the country around it. Rub it in.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Island (1962)