Collected Qoutes

[irthomasthomas]

Somewhere to collect my favourite quotes.

[irthomasthomas]

"Industrial man,

a sentient reciprocating engine having a fluctuating output, coupled to an iron wheel revolving with uniform velocity. And then we wonder why this should be the golden age of revolution and mental derangement."

-- Aldous Huxley, Time Must Have a Stop, 1944

[irthomasthomas]

"A rational being

does not allow himself to be converted to the cult of Mumbo Jumbo; but he will have no objection to occasionally going a bit native."

-- Aldous Huxley, Eyeless In Gaza, 1936

Mumbo Jumbo: an object of senseless veneration or a meaningless ritual. Humorous criticism of corporate speak, jargon, legalese. Jargon: "The verbal sleight-of-hand that makes the old hat seem newly fashionable."

[irthomasthomas]

" Jargon,

the verbal sleight-of-hand that makes the old hat seem newly fashionable; it gives an air of novelty and specious profundity to ideas that, if stated plainly, would seem superficial, stale, frivolous, or false. The line between serious and spurious scholarship is an easy one to blur, with jargon an your side.

-- David Lehman

[irthomasthomas]

Eyeless in Gaza

Odd when you come to think about it, that the mere notion of talking to socialists about sin should seem so outrageous.

You could talk about it if you start at the other end... The social end. Organizing society so well that the individual simply could not commit any sins.

But do you honestly think such a society could exist?

No - I don't know.

I can't see that you could do more that just transfer peoples sins from one plane to another. But we've done that already. Envy and ambition used to express themselves on the plane of physical violence. Now, we've reorganized society in such a way that they have to express themselves in terms of economic competition.

Which we're going to abolish

And so bring physical violence back into fashion, eh?

[irthomasthomas]

Eyeless in Gaza

If you want to be free, you've got to be a prisoner. It's the condition of freedom, true freedom.

"True freedom": The contrary of a thing isn't the contrary. It's the thing itself, but as it truly is. Ask a diehard what Conservatism is; he'll tell you true socialism.

"True Temperance: Ordinary temperance is just gross refusal to drink; but TRUE temperance is much more refined. True temperance is a bottle of claret with each meal. Personally, I,m all for true temperance, because I hate temperance. But I like being free. So I wont have anything to do with true freedom."

[irthomasthomas]

Eyeless in Gaza

Code and prejudice where of their own particular caste; so therefore without binding force. Their example delivered him from the chains that his upbringing had fastened upon him, but was powerless to bind him with those other chains in which they themselves walked through life.