Aldous Huxley Quotes

People just don't realize how much peer pressure, the desire for peer acclamation, influences them.

I just felt being part of my peer group so strongly. I was immersed in teen culture, but not taken in by it.

When I entered high school I was an A-student, but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went from being an A-student to a B-student to a C-student, but I didn't care. I was getting the high fives and the low fives and the pats on the back. I was cool.

My mother wanted my sister and me to live a normal life. I always picked friends who weren't impressed with my family ties.

I know nowadays the common wisdom is to celebrate diversity as long as you don't point out that people are different.

Trapped. Sinking. Can't be myself. Made into what other people expect. Is that everyone's fate? Were the great individualists the products of their friends who wanted a great individualist as a friend?

I'm sure there was people in Australia that told Peter Norman that hey, man, you shouldn't have done what you did, you shouldn't have gotten involved in those individuals, it wasn't your business.

All the rich people collect traditional Chinese art. So it's very natural for Chinese families to still see art as the highest human performance and send their children to this field.

The most important thing to a lot of people, is to belong to something that's hip or whatever. To be a part of something that's not society, just a clique. And they get real sidetracked trying to think like everyone else. They don't realize that you have to motivate yourself to do things you want to do. Some people just like going along for the ride. And those are the kind of people I don't get along with too well.

Art is not democratic. It is not for the people.

I also think that there's a little peer pressure. They probably think that a majority of people their age think the same things and they want to be considered - I don't know what the word is - in, hip, whatever, with that bunch. I think time will take care of some of this as it is revealed that [Donald] Trump is not what they think.

Most people in the media aren't bad people. They just go along to get along and it's the group culture and the conditioning. As soon as they see that things are wrong, some of them will start speaking out and making a stand.

Lots of things inspire me. My friends and my family, obviously. I really like to travel, so very inspired by traveling and meeting new people along the way. Also, music and the arts, like film and television. I like to read a lot too; that stuff inspires me.

Don't know which one is worse, doing your own thing or just being cool.

Very many people spend money in ways quite different from those that their natural tastes would enjoin, merely because the respect of their neighbors depends upon their possession of a good car and their ability to give good dinners. As a matter of fact, any man who can obviously afford a car but genuinely prefers travels or a good library will in the end be much more respected than if he behaved exactly like everyone else.

I mean people -- people don't get -- they don't get smarter about things that get as basic as greed and you can't stand to see your neighbor getting rich. You know you're smarter than he is, and he's doing these things, you know, and he's getting rich, and your spouse is getting unhappy with you because you aren't doing -- pretty soon you start doing it. And so you get what I call the natural progression, the three Is. The innovators, the imitators, and the idiots.

Relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.

Conformity makes everything easier, if you can still breathe.

Some people hold themselves above the fashion business but are still complicit and fall prey to it.

People told her she hadn't changed much, in a tone which hinted they were surprised and a little disappointed she hadn't.

When other people first became aware of the cow, they expressed concern and anxiety. They suggested strategies for getting the animal out of Molly's parlor: remedies and doctors and procedures, some mainstream and some New Age. They related anecdotes of friends who had removed their own cows in one way or another. But after a while they had exhausted their suggestions. Then they usually began to pretend that the cow wasn't there, and they preferred for Molly to go along with the pretense.

It's so trendy, almost bleeding to death. All the cool girls are doing it.

Reality's what other people dream for you.

[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.

Today, I find inspiration in music, art, traveling the world, and meeting new people.