1,299 Quotes by Aldous Huxley

A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will’s freedom after it.

A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author’s soul.

The leech’s kiss, the squid’s embrace, The prurient ape’s defiling touch: And do you like the human race? No, not much.

Since Mozart’s day composers have learned the art of making music throatily and palpitatingly sexual.

Bernard gave his orders in the sharp, rather arrogant and even offensive tone of one who does not feel himself too secure in his superiority.

The essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.

After all, what is reading but a vice, like drink or venery or any other form of excessive self-indulgence? One reads to tickle and amuse one’s mind; one reads, above all, to prevent oneself thinking.

The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

Industrial civilization is only possible when there’s no self-denial. Self-indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygiene and economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning.