All quotes

The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray.

Mustapha Mond: We prefer to do things comfortably. John: But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin. Mustapha Mond: In fact, you’re claiming the right to be unhappy…

The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age…

A man can smile and smile and be a villain.

Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly—they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.

We should grant power over affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase the reluctance.

Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it.

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which…

All governments needed to remain under suspicion during their time of power. Trust no government! Not even mine!

We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.

The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind every great event.

"I can't go back," said Towser. "Nor I," said Fowler. "They would turn me back into a dog," said Towser. "And me," said Fowler, "back into a man."

The Juwain philosophy provides an ability to sense the viewpoint of another. It won't necessarily make you agree with that viewpoint, but it does make you recognize it. You not only know what the other fellow is talking about, but how he…

No one would know exactly what had happened. And even if one guessed, there'd be no way to make sure. And even if one were sure, there'd be nothing that could be done about it. A thousand years before it would not have been that way. For…

It ain't no use. They won't buy farm-raised stuff. Just laughed at me. Showed me ears of corn twice as big as the ones I had, just as sweet and with more even rows. Showed me melons that had almost no rind at all. Better tasting, too, they…

The city is an anachronism. It has outlived its usefulness. Hydroponics and the helicopter spelled its downfall. In the first instance the city was a tribal place, an area where the tribe banded together for mutual protection. Then the…

There had always been mutants, else the race would not have advanced. But until the last hundred years or so they had not been recognized as such. Before that they had merely been great businessmen or great scientists or great crooks. Or…

The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them.

A wise man depends upon his friends for information and upon himself for decisions.

Information is the tool and the goad of intelligence.

"What's the most important thing to know about a weapon?" he asked. The general's forehead creased. "How to use it effectively, of course." Coogan shook his head. "That's an overgeneralization. The most important thing is to know your…

He thought, too, about his need for a real animal; within him an actual hadred once more manifested itself toward his electric sheep, which he had to tend, had to care about, as if it lived. The tyranny of an object, he thought. It doesn't…

Empathy, he once had decided, must be limited to herbivores or anyhow omnivores who could depart from a meat diet. Because, ultimately, the empathic gift blurred the boudaries between hunter and victim, between the successful and the…

Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your…

Aside from a cold appreciation of my own genius I felt that I was a modest man.

Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong — but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong.

There is solemn satisfaction in doing the best you can for eight billion people. Perhaps their lives have no cosmic significance, but they have feelings. They can hurt.

His bow to me must have been calculated on a slide rule; it suggested that I was about to be Supreme Minister but was not quite there yet, that I was his senior but nevertheless a civilian — then subtract five degrees for the fact that he…

I have never been impressed by the formal schools of ethics. I had sampled them — public libraries are a ready source of recreation for an actor short of cash — but I had found them as poor in vitamins as a mother-in-law's kiss. Given…

People don't really want change, any change at all — and xenophobia is very deep-rooted. But we progress, as we must — if we are to go out to the stars.