To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Aldous HuxleyRead
We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is to learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.
Interpretation
We cannot fully rationalize our emotional or irrational behaviors; instead, we should learn to manage them wisely.
This quote by Aldous Huxley suggests that while humans may strive for rational thinking, much of our behavior is driven by irrational impulses. Rather than attempting to eliminate these irrational aspects, which is often impossible, we should focus on understanding and guiding them in a more reasonable manner, allowing for a balance between logic and emotion in our decision-making.
In practice
In a lecture on decision-making, one might use this quote to illustrate the complexity of human psychology.
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.
CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager.
No one knows what cuases an outer landscape to become an inner one.
Men think they think upon the great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently; they read its literature, but not that of the other side
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
The moment this House undertakes to legislate upon this subject slavery, it dissolves the Union. Should it be my fortune to have a seat upon this floor, I will abandon it the instant the first decisive step is taken looking towards legislation of this subject. I will go home to preach, and if I can, practice, disunion, and civil war, if needs be. A revolution must ensue, and this republic sink in blood.
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
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