Quotes from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited

Aldous Huxley ·  340 pages

Rating: (117.6K votes)


“Hug me till you drug me, honey;
Kiss me till I'm in a coma.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“The nature of psychological compulsion is such that those who act under constraint remain under the impression that they are acting on their own initiative. 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. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly objective.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“life is short and information endless: nobody has time for everything”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“But liberty, as we all know, cannot flourish in a country that is permanently on a war footing, or even a near-war footing. Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of everybody and everything by the agencies of the central government.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited



“Today alcohol and tobacco are available, and people spend considerably more on these very unsatisfactory euphorics, pseudo-stimulants and sedatives than they are ready to spend on the education of their children.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Walking and talking - that seemed a very odd way of spending an afternoon.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“And no wonder; for the new technique of "subliminal projection," as it was called, was intimately associated with mass entertainment, and in the life of civilized human beings massed entertainment now plays a part comparable to that played in the Middle Ages be religion.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Bottle of mine, it's you I've always wanted!
Bottle of mine, why was I ever decanted?

Skies are blue inside of you,
The weather's always fine;

For
There ain't no Bottle in all the world
Like that dear little Bottle of mine.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited



“Rams wrapped in thermogene beget no lambs.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Éste es el secreto de la felicidad y la virtud: Amar lo que uno tiene que hacer. Todo condicionamiento tiende a esto: a lograr que la gente ame su inevitable destino social".”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Today I feel no wish to demonstrate that sanity is impossible. On the contrary, though I remain no less sadly certain than in the past that sanity is a rather rare phenomenon, I am convinced that it can be achieved and would like to see more of it.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“los hombres no son sólo meros compradores de los productos en serie producidos por los grandes trusts, sino que parecen incluso producidos por la omnipotencia de éstos, perdiendo su propia individuación.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“People are related to one another, not as total personalities, but as the embodiments of economic functions, or when they are not at work, as irresponsible seekers of entertainment. Subjected to this kind of life, individuals tend to feel lonely and insignificant. Their existence cases to have any point of meaning”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited



“The strange words rolled through his mind; rumbled, like talking thunder; like the drums at the summer dances, if the drums could have spoken; like the men singing the Corn Song, beautiful, beautiful, so that you cried.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Casi todos desean la paz y la libertad, pero son muy pocos los que tienen gran entusiasmo por las ideas, sentimientos y actos que hacen factibles esos ideales. Inversamente,”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Podría haber y, a mi juicio, debería haber leyes que impidieran a los candidatos, no solamente gastar más que determinada cantidad en sus campañas electorales, sino también recurrir a esa especie de propaganda antirracional que convierte en disparate todo el procedimiento democrático.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“La actual felicidad siempre parece muy menguada en comparación con las compensaciones que brinda la miseria. Y, además, la estabilidad no es ni con mucho tan espectacular como la inestabilidad. Y el estar satisfecho no tiene el encanto de una denodada lucha contra la desgracia, ni el pintoresquismo de una pugna contra la tentación, o de una fatal derrota a manos de la pasión o de la duda. La felicidad nunca es grandiosa.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“El viaje transcurrió sin el menor incidente. El Cohete Azul del Pacífico llegó a Nueva Orleáns con dos minutos y medio de anticipación,”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited



“el individuo siente, la comunidad se resiente -citó Lenina.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“No se debe discutir con los adversarios; hay que atacarlos, callarlos a gritos o, si molestan demasiado, liquidarlos. El intelectual, moralmente remilgado, tal vez se escandalice de una cosa así. Pero las masas siempre están convencidas de que “el derecho está de parte del agresor activo”.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Our “increasing mental sickness” may find expression in neurotic symptoms. These symptoms are conspicuous and extremely distressing. But “let us beware,” says Dr. Fromm, “of defining mental hygiene as the prevention of symptoms. Symptoms as such are not our enemy, but our friend; where there are symptoms there is conflict, and conflict always indicates that the forces of life which strive for integration and happiness are still fighting.” The really hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. “Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does.” They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted, still cherish “the illusion of individuality,” but in fact they have been to a great extent deindividualized. Their conformity is developing into something like uniformity. But “uniformity and freedom are incompatible. Uniformity and mental health are incompatible too. . . . Man is not made to be an automaton, and if he becomes one, the basis for mental health is destroyed.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“Una de las principales funciones de un amigo es el sufrir (en forma más suave y simbólica) los castigos que queremos, y no podemos infligir a nuestros enemigos.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited


“El hecho de que en la más poderosa democracia del mundo haya tantos jóvenes y bien alimentados espectadores de televisión que muestren tan completa indiferencia por la idea de gobernarse a sí mismos y sientan tan poco interés por la libertad de pensamiento y el derecho a disentir es aflictivo, pero no muy sorprendente. Decimos “libre como un pájaro” y envidiamos a los alados seres su poder de moverse sin restricción alguna en las tres dimensiones. Pero, ay, nos olvidamos del dido. Todo pájaro que aprenda a organizarse una buena vida sin necesidad de usar sus alas pronto renunciará al privilegio del vuelo y permanecerá por siempre en tierra. Algo parecido pasa con los seres humanos.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited



About the author

Aldous Huxley
Born place: in Godalming, Surrey, England, The United Kingdom
Born date July 26, 1894
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
― William Blake, quote from Auguries of Innocence


“Leave it to Niles Sparks to prank his pranking partner in the middle of a prank.”
― Mac Barnett, quote from The Terrible Two Get Worse


“...et ignotas animum dimittit in artes, naturamque nouat. (to arts unknown he bends his wits, and alters nature.)”
― Ovid, quote from The Metamorphoses


“Agatha, who was spending time in their room as her own was lonely, perked up. "I preferred the garrote myself."
The others looked at her, startled. Aside from the theater, and sleeping, Agatha rarely expressed an interest in anything. Let alone something espionage related.
"You do?" Dimity encouraged.
Agatha nodded. "You can wear it as jewelry, it hides away easily, and it's a nice clean death.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Waistcoats & Weaponry


“The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
― Margery Williams Bianco, quote from The Velveteen Rabbit


Interesting books

Breathing Under Water
(633)
Breathing Under Wate...
by Sophie Hardcastle
The Madonnas of Leningrad
(14.8K)
The Madonnas of Leni...
by Debra Dean
The Hazel Wood
(10.3K)
The Hazel Wood
by Melissa Albert
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
(8.6K)
The Tattooist of Aus...
by Heather Morris
A List of Cages
(9.6K)
A List of Cages
by Robin Roe
The Realm of You: A Novel
(386)
The Realm of You: A...
by Amanda Richardson

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.