Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxleywas an English writer, novelist, philosopher, and prominent member of the Huxley family. He graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a first in English literature...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth26 July 1894
fate college expression
What a gulf between impression and expression! That’s our ironic fate—to have Shakespearean feelings and (unless by some billion-to-one chance we happen to be Shakespeare) to talk about them like automobile salesmen or teen-agers or college professors. We practice alchemy in reverse—touch gold and it turns into lead; touch the pure lyrics of experience, and they turn into the verbal equivalents of tripe and hogwash.
soul captains fate-and-destiny
[I am not] the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.
children book fate
Books have their destinies like men. And their fates, as made by generations of readers, are very different from the destinies foreseen for them by their authors. Gulliver's Travels, with a minimum of expurgation, has become a children's book; a new illustrated edition is produced every Christmas. That's what comes of saying profound things about humanity in terms of a fairy story.
fate soul literature
My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.
degrees drink equal hardened hundred indulge love nirvana parts proof pure spirit-and-spirituality
Pure Spirit, one hundred degrees proof -- that's a drink that only the most hardened contemplation-guzzlers indulge in. Bodhisattvas dilute their Nirvana with equal parts of love and work.
change changing found sure
I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.
english-novelist knows life multiply power ways
Every person who knows how to read has it in their power to magnify themselves, to multiply the ways in which they exist, to make life full, significant, and interesting.
absolute beings capacity english-novelist human infinite taking
Most human beings have an absolute and infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
history lessons men
Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.
doubt english-novelist man
A fanatic is a man who consciously over compensates a secret doubt.
certain corner english-novelist
There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.
behaviour beings english-novelist human inverse moral number quality ratio varies
The quality of moral behaviour varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.
english-novelist man served servitude
Man is an intelligence, not served by, but in servitude to his organs.
comedy
We participate in tragedy. At comedy we only look.