Aldous Huxley

Writers write to influence their readers their preachers their auditors but always at bottom to be more themselves.

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.

They intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are.

Why should human females become sterile in their forties while female crocodiles continue to lay eggs into their third century?

That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces sleep.

The traveller's-eye view of men and women is not satisfying. A man might spend his life in trains and restaurants and know nothing of humanity at the end. To know one must be an actor as well as a spectator.

What we think and feel and are is to a great extent determined by the state of our ductless glands and our viscera.

There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all the virtures are of no avail.

The course of every intellectual if he pursues his journey long and unflinchingly enough ends in the obvious from which the non-intellectuals have never stirred.

The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished not by doing something but by refraining from doing. Great is truth but still greater from a practical point of view is silence about truth.

Silence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unhewn marble of great sculpture.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that's your own self.

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that's your own self.

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 wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Every gain made by individuals or society is almost instantly taken for granted.

I believe one would write better if the climate were bad. If there were a lot of wind and storms for example...

One of the great 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.