Aldous Huxley Quotes

It has been said that metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct.

Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

Like all religions, Reason presents itself as the solution to the problems it has created

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.

Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.

Not that believing such things has anything to do with whether they are true. You see that, don't you?

Logic works, metaphysics contemplates.

The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.

Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct; but to find these reasons is no less an instinct.

I had some hesitations about philosophy because, if you worked out a philosophical theory, it was hard to know whether you were going to be able to prove it or whether other theories had just as good a claim on belief.

The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.

Philosophy likes to keen common sense on the run.

The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

I don't discount belief. I just discount most of the things that people believe in.

Credo quia absurdum – I believe because it is absurd.

I've gone through most of my life not believing anything. Either I know or I don't know, or I think.

I hope you become comfortable with the use of logic without being deceived into concluding that logic will inevitably lead you to the correct conclusion.

I think what attracts me about the Electric Monk is that it's such an eloquent example of the futility of belief for belief's sake. I mean there's only any point in believing something if it's true.

The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We use this word all the time, and I think behind it lurk some really extraordinary taboos and confusions. What I want to argue tonight is that how we talk about belief- how we fail to criticize or criticize the beliefs of others, has more importance to us personally, more consequence to us personally and to civilization than perhaps anything else that is in our power to influence.

Philosophy begins when one learns to doubt -- particularly to doubt one's cherished beliefs, one's dogmas and one's axioms.

He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.

I ask the fundamental question of rationality: Why do you believe what you believe? What do you think you know and how do you think you know it?