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
What this quote means
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.
Themes
IrrationalityReasonBalanceEmotionWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on decision-making, one might use this quote to illustrate the complexity of human psychology.
More from Aldous Huxley
All quotes βFacts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
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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.
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On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.
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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.
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The leech's kiss, the squid's embrace, The prurient ape's defiling touch: And do you like the human race? No, not much.
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The Catholics have a Pope. Protestants laugh at them, and yet the Pope is capable of intellectual advancement. In addition to this, the Pope is mortal, and the church cannot be afflicted with the same idiot forever. The Protestants have a book for their Pope. The book cannot advance. Year after year, and century after century, the book remains as ignorant as ever.
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Those who have a why to live for can bear almost any how. The necessary premise is that a person is somehow more than his or her "characteristics," all the emotions, strivings, tastes, and constructions which it pleases us to call "My Life." We have grounds to hope that a Life is something more than a cloud of particles, mere facticity. Go through what is comprehensible and you conclude that only the incomprehensible gives any light.
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Everyone wants to be foremost in this future-and yet death and the stillness of death are the only things certain and common to all in this future! How strange that this sole thing that is certain and common to all, exercises almost no influence on men, and that they are the furthest from regarding themselves as the brotherhood of death! It makes me happy to see that men do not want to think at all of the idea of death!
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Perhaps some day someone will explain how, on the level of man, Auschwitz was possible; but on the level of God, it will forever remain the most disturbing of mysteries.
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