Nora > Nora's Quotes

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

“When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature

“The mind drinks less and less.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.”
― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

“Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

“These,” he said gravely, “are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant.”
― Aldous Huxley

“Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It’s madness.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Ending is better than mending.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Back to culture. Yes, actually to culture. You can’t consume much if you sit still and read books.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Can you say something about nothing?”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Consider the matter dispassionately, Mr. Foster,
and you will see that no offence is so henious as unorthodoxy of behaviour.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“The author's mathematical treatment of the conception of purpose is novel and highly ingenious, but heretical and, so far as the present social order is concerned, dangerous and potentially subversive. Not to be published.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Particularly when they're beautiful. Beauty's attractive, and we don't want people to be attracted by old things. We want them to like the new ones.”
― Aldous Huxley, Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

“you can’t make tragedies without social instability.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Every change is a menace to stability. That’s another reason why we’re so chary of applying new inventions. Every discovery in pure science is potentially subversive; even science must sometimes be treated as a possible enemy. Yes, even science.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“But God doesn't change.'
'Men do, though.'
'What difference does that make?'
'All the difference in the world.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons—that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“The gods are just. No doubt. But their code of law is dictated, in the last resort, by the people who organize society; Providence takes its cue from men.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.”
― William Shakespeare, King Lear

“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“In a word, they failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better than one should suffer than that many should be corrupted.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“El cuerpo social persiste aunque sus células cambien.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five