To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Aldous HuxleyRead
... one reads, above all, to prevent oneself thinking.
Interpretation
Reading serves as a distraction from our own thoughts.
In this quote, Aldous Huxley suggests that reading can often act as a form of escapism, allowing individuals to avoid confronting their own thoughts and feelings. This reflects on the nature of literature as both a tool for gaining knowledge and a way to distract oneself from personal introspection.
In practice
During a book club discussion about literature's role in our lives.
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
In the course of history many more people have died for their drink and their dope than have died for their religion or their country.
On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.
No man ever dared to manifest his boredom so insolently as does a Siamese tomcat when he yawns in the face of his amorously importunate wife.
The leech's kiss, the squid's embrace, The prurient ape's defiling touch: And do you like the human race? No, not much.
Fulfill me, make me happy, make me feel safe, tell me who I am. The world cannot give you those things, and when you no longer have such expectations, all self created suffering comes to an end.
The significance is hiding in the insignificant. Appreciate everything.
Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.
We work so hard to get somewhere, to realize a dream, to arrive at some destination, that we often forget that though some satisfaction may be waiting at the end of our endurance and effort, there is great and irreplaceable aliveness in the steps along the way.
Things are going downhill with you!' he said to himself, and laughed about it, and as he was saying it, he happened to glance at the river, and he also saw the river going downhill, always moving on downhill, and singing and being happy through it all.
I prefer to be refuted than to refute, for it is a greater good for oneself to be freed from the greatest evil than to free another.
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