Friday, September 12, 2008

Some quotes from Aldous Huxley and some music!

Aldous Huxley is probably best known for his work The Doors of Perception, and for being one of the early popularisers of the recently deceased Albery Hoffman's Lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD. As well as unwittingly fuelling the cultural revolution of the 1960's, Huxley also had a great intrest in mysticism and spirituality. I found a great number of quotes from him on the matter at Opajdara Vox Verbum. Here are some that stuck with me for one reason or another:

"A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention."

"The majority of human beings behave as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor."

"Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself."

"Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength."

Also, here's an amazing Dave Brubeck performance I found on the 'Tube. It's from an old set he did in Australia. One of my favourite Brubeck numbers:



And just to break it up a bit, click here (YouTube won't let me embed the video) for an awesome performance by The Roots, who are, in my humble opinion, the greatest hip-hop act OF ALL TIME. EVER.

One more for the road. Here's another amazing performance, this time by Gnarls Barkly:



That's it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude...IM a 'child-like man'.

Joe said...

Yes...

Yes you are.