Aldous Huxley Quotes
A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.
Huxley, Aldous. Ends and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the Methods Employed for Their Realization. Chatto & Windus, 1937, p. 95.
65 years later, this would become a major principle of conservatives, but it was a liberal President who seemed first to make this statement in a major address.
Lippmann was the most influential pundit of the time. Roosevelt had just been elected but had not yet assumed office. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression and many communities had 80% unemployment. Banks had failed, people were starving, and many people thought that democracy was just not suited to deal with such severe problems. Roosevelt, however rejected the advice and always worked through the Congress and in so doing saved democracy in America.
This quotation is inscribed on the FDR Memorial in Washington DC.
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books—both novels and non-fiction works—as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
