To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
Aldous HuxleyRead
In religion all words are dirty words. Anybody who gets eloquent about Buddha, or God, or Christ, ought to have his mouth washed out with carbolic soap.
Interpretation
This quote critiques overly grandiose or eloquent expressions about spirituality and religion.
Aldous Huxley uses this quote to argue that discussions surrounding religion often become filled with excessive and inflated language that obscures true understanding. By suggesting that such eloquence deserves a metaphorical cleansing, Huxley emphasizes the importance of sincerity and humility in our discussions about spirituality, warning against the danger of letting lofty language replace genuine thought and reflection.
In practice
During a debate on religious philosophy, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of clear communication.
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.
Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of 'The Giver': the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.
For outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
It's said that when we die, the four elements - earth, air, fire and water - dissolve one by one, each into the other, and finally just dissolve into space. But while we're living, we share the energy that makes everything, from a blade of grass to an elephant, grow and live and then inevitably wear out and die. This energy, this life force, creates the whole world.
Christian life means sacrifice.
I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.
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