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Modern man's besetting temptation is to sacrifice his direct perceptions and spontaneous feelings to his reasoned reflections to prefer in all circumstances the verdict of his intellect to that of his immediate intuitions.

Aldous Huxley

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Aldous Huxley
Age: 69 †
Born: 1894
Born: July 26
Died: 1963
Died: November 22
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Professor
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Godalming
Surrey
Aldous Leonard Huxley
Men
Intellect
Reflections
Reflection
Verdict
Perception
Perceptions
Sacrifice
Spontaneous
Direct
Immediate
Circumstances
Intuition
Besetting
Modern
Temptation
Intuitions
Feelings
Prefer
Reasoned

More quotes by Aldous Huxley

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Compared with that of Taoists and Far Eastern Buddhists, the Christian attitude toward Nature has been curiously insensitive and often downright domineering and violent. Taking their cue from an unfortunate remark in Genesis, Catholic moralists have regarded animals as mere things which men do right to regard for their own ends. . . .
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But then every man is ludicrous if you look at him from outside, without taking into account what’s going on in his heart and mind.
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Most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and has always been one of the principal appetites of the soul.
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Round pegs in square holes tend to have dangerous thoughts about the social system and tend to infect others with their discontents.
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It is in the social sphere, in the realm of politics and economics, that the Will to Order becomes really dangerous.
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I was born wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other powerless to be born, and have made, in a curious way, the worst of both.
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The quality of moral behavior varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.
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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.'
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The nature of oratory is such that there has always been a tendency among politicians and clergymen to oversimplify complex matters. From a pulpit or a platform even the most conscientious of speakers finds it very difficult to tell the whole truth.
Aldous Huxley
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Our goal is to discover that we have always been where we ought to be
Aldous Huxley
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There are few who would not rather be taken in adultery than in provocation.
Aldous Huxley
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God: a gaseous vertebrate.
Aldous Huxley
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Good is that which makes for unity. Evil is that which makes for separateness.
Aldous Huxley
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Industrialization is the systemic exploitation of wasting assets. In all too many cases, the thing we call progress is merely an acceleration in the rate of that exploitation.
Aldous Huxley
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Too much consistency is as bad for the mind as for the body.
Aldous Huxley
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The people who kill and torture and tell lies in the name of their sacred causes, these are never the publicans and the sinners. No, they're the virtuous, respectable men, who have the finest feelings, the best brains, the noblest ideals.
Aldous Huxley
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Did you ever feel, as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you to give it a chance to come out? Some sort of extra power that you aren't using - you know, like all the water that goes down the falls instead of through the turbines?
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Medical science is making such remarkable progress that soon none of us will be well.
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Feasts must be solemn and rare, or else they cease to be feasts.
Aldous Huxley
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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