The 11 Best Phrases By Aldous Huxley To Reflect On Life
Aldous Huxley’s phrases are an invitation to deeper reflection to question not only the lifestyle we lead but also the direction and values of the society in which we participate. These are sentences with an ingenious, critical and sometimes cynical style that, in some way, connect with the one who reads them, regardless of the time in which they are, providing clues that question their vision of the world.
Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) was a British writer and philosopher belonging to a family of intellectuals. In his youth he suffered from an illness that left him practically blind, which is why he delayed his university education at Oxford. However, once it was over, he finished his studies in English literature and dedicated himself to traveling around Europe as an art and literature critic.
When he was twenty-two he published his first work, The Burning Wheel (1916), a collection of poems. But it was in 1932 when he published one of his most famous works: A happy world. It is a pessimistic futuristic and visionary fiction about a society organized in a caste system in which a drug called soma plays a relevant role.
Over the years, Huxley became interested in mysticism and spirituality and in 1945 published The Perennial Philosophy, a work that is the result of a process of documenting the writings of spiritual teachers from different traditions such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism. Its objective was to present this work to make known the common substratum that all the religious and spiritual traditions that have emerged throughout history have.
Huxley has not only been considered by many as the initiator of psychedelia but also as the mouthpiece of the intellectuals of the first half of the 20th century.
In this article we leave you a small selection of the best quotes by Aldous Huxley to reflect on life, society and the power of knowing ourselves.
The fear trap
This is one of Aldous Huxley’s most interesting phrases for the content of his message about fear and that we should keep in mind in our day to day life. Although love is the most powerful feeling that we can experience and, in turn, the one that can fill us the most, protect us and make us evolve, fear is the other side of the coin.
Fear limits us and tells us lies while hindering our path of personal growth. Under different appearances it is capable of distancing us from everything that does us good to install ourselves in the prison of doubt and despair. For this reason, it is essential to protect ourselves from their tricks.
A life full of fear is a life boycotted by insecurity and somehow self-loathing. Because fear is that monster that appears to remind us that we are not valid or good, but small and insignificant. Hence, the best weapon to banish it is love, that feeling that teaches us to value ourselves.
The importance of knowing what we want
We often think lightly about what we want to achieve, and forget to be careful about what we want. Dreaming on tiptoe does not assure us that in the future we will have our feet on the ground but neither that we will achieve flight. That is why it is so important to know where we are and where we are going, otherwise we will only walk lost without a fixed direction.
The danger of technologies
This reflection by Huxley is much more valuable today than when he enunciated it in 1930.
Technology, despite making progress in different areas, also carries a series of risks, both personally and socially. And in relation to the latter, Huxley argued that to avoid lack of control, rebellion and individual reflection, that is, to continue exercising authority and domination, large organizations had to establish mechanisms to exercise control. In fact, one of their great concerns was the arrival of a technological dictatorship to sedate individuals.
The relationship between intelligence and loneliness
An insightful mind, driven by curiosity and passionate about reflection needs to nourish itself with doses of loneliness. The silence of being alone to connect with oneself, discover oneself, decipher and observe the world from the inside is a fundamental condition of the most awakened minds. Hence, the practice of meditation is one of the hobbies most enjoyed by this type of people.
The pain of meeting
This is one of Aldous Huxley’s phrases that stands out for its lucidity on the subject of self-knowledge. Knowing yourself implies not only observing and being aware of what comforts us and we are good at, but also getting in touch with our shadows. And this requires a great deal of courage , not everyone has enough courage to come face to face with themselves. Hence, many opt for the strategy of distraction through illusions.
Now, avoiding contact with ourselves implies stagnation, immobility and the impossibility of continuing to grow. How to improve if we do not know each other? How can we help society evolve if we avoid turning our eyes inward by all means? The problem is that as long as we maintain this attitude we will not only remain trapped in self-deception but also in the continuous complaint and the tendency to hold others responsible for all the problems and difficulties that occur.
The threat of change
Change is a threat because it implies facing the abyss of the unknown, the precipice of uncertainty. As we change, we abandon old habits to embrace the opportunity to incorporate new ones. The problem is that we are reluctant to welcome novelty because we consider it an enemy that comes to destabilize us. Hence, so many purposes, objectives and goals are left half if we do not use willpower, effort and persistence.
Now, there are also changes and changes. These are those that are almost imperceptible because they follow the dynamics in which we were immersed and those others that represent a revolution in our lives. The latter are the most valuable and are directly related to a transformative change that comes from within us.
The importance of attitude
This is one of Aldous Huxley’s phrases to keep in mind whenever forces falter and threaten to leave the ring of life. The important thing is not what happens, it is not what, but how we face it, what attitude we choose to face it, that is, how we react.
The difficulty of practice
Another of Aldous Huxley’s phrases not to forget in our day to day life. Knowing about certain topics, knowing the different theories and even some studies carried out does not imply that we know how to act accordingly. Often, there is a great gulf between theory and practice that we hardly perceive, but that is not without its value.
How many times have we believed that we knew how to react to a certain situation and then when it happened to us we were lost and immobilized! The power of circumstances is amazing. For this reason, if we want to put into practice everything we have learned, it is not only worth reading or reflecting, the key is to execute, to react, to take all knowledge to a higher plane.
The limits of words
Without a doubt, this is one of Aldous Huxley’s phrases that most invites us to reflect. Language is a powerful tool used to communicate, however it has its limitations. Sometimes words cannot contain the irrepressible, that which is the fruit of the purest and most direct experience of our senses and feelings. In fact, they also lead us to misunderstandings and conflicts because concepts have their subjective nuances. Who assures us that our partner conceives the experience of love as we do? Does forgiveness, betrayal, or compromise have the same meaning for each of us?
As we can see, the phrases of Aldous Huxley are a valuable legacy to reflect on how we live and where we are going. These are pills full of wisdom that challenge our intellect in order to make us more awake. A collection of sentences to go to whenever we want to broaden our visual and mental spectrum.
