To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Aldous HuxleyRead
Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.
Interpretation
Words have the power to deeply impact and influence when used thoughtfully.
Aldous Huxley suggests that words possess a profound capability to penetrate the barriers of understanding and perception. When articulated effectively, they can reveal truths and evoke emotions in listeners, much like an X-ray unveils what is hidden beneath the surface. This underscores the importance of communication and the responsibility that comes with it.
In practice
In a speech about the impact of literature, one could cite Huxley's quote to emphasize how words can reveal deep truths.
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.
The more I prayed for my enemies, the softer my heart became.
Allow God to be as creative with you as He is with each of us.
Sheep are stupid, and have to be driven. But goats are intelligent, and need to be led.
Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.
It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.
Imagine your anger to be a kind of wild beast, because it has ferocious teeth and claws, and if you don't tame it, it will devastate all things even corrupting the soul.
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