black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.

Aldous Huxley

To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely instructive books. To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written by men who lived, thought, and felt with style.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Book Great Inform Instructive Merely Must Number Quick Read
Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. If war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you’d collapse. And while you people are overconsuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Armament Debt Obsolescence Pillar Plan Prosperity Universal Western
We shall be permitted to live on this planet only for as long as we treat all nature with compassion and intelligence.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Compassion Intelligence Live Long Nature Only Permitted Planer Shall Treat
Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty – his excessive freedom.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Agreeable Boredom Excessive Liberty Painful Rather Symbol Traveller True
Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects… totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Greater Greta Partial Silence Still Truth View
But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Always Contrary Determine End Justify Mean Nature never Such Universe
Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Backward Efficient Going Mean Merely More Progress Provide Technological
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Against Believe Deepest Evidence Juman Mind
The world is an illusion, but an illusion which we must take seriously.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Illusion Must Seriously Word
It isn’t a matter of forgetting. What one has to learn is how to remember and yet be free of the past.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Forgetting Free Learn Matter Past Remember Yet
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
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Great Human Justifier Least Malice Miseries Motivation Stupidity Third Two
Every man’s memory is his private literature.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Every Man Literature Memory Private
The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Believe Free Hi Invivble Manipulation Mind Myself Person Victim Wall
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Cease Exist Face Ignore
Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Always Bullying End Everyone Good Human Race Universal Wants
When the sun rises, it rises for everyone.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Everyone Rise Sun
Sons have always a rebellious wish to be disillusioned by that which charmed their fathers.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Always Claim Disillusion Father Rebellious Son
At this point we find ourselves confronted by a very disquieting question: Do we really wish to act upon our knowledge?
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Act Disquiet Find Knowledge Ourselves Point Question Really Upon Wish
He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Accept Almost Boredom Come Philosophical Pleasure
The question of the next generation will not be one of how to liberate the masses, but rather, how to make them love their servitude.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Generation How Liberate Love Make Mass Next Question Rather
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.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Act Being Capable Great Human Irritation Seem Variety Way
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

From History Important Learn Lesson Men Much Very
The third petition of the Lord’s Prayer is repeated daily by millions who have not the slightest intention of letting anyone’s will be done but their own.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Anyone Daily Done Letting Lord Million Own Petition Prayer Repeat Slightest Third
So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Arise City Famous Long Make Men Miserable People Personality Person So Worship
Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Able Been Brute Demons Level Often Rise Sunk Thank Word
All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

All Good Give Homemade Our Power Pull String Them
In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or the propaganda might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies.
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Advocate Early Envisage Free Literacy Possibility Press Propaganda Regar Two Universal

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Aldous Huxley Quotes