The eminently quotable Aldous Huxley
Huxley has such a unique way of phrasing things... I could have honestly copied out Crome Yellow in its entirety onto this journal... it was delightful.
Now I'm reading another Huxley, one I've wanted to read for years and which Backus got me for Christmas (yes, he is the best boyfriend ever). It's called The Devils of Loudun: A True Story of Demonic Possession. There are multiple portions of it which just ask to be pointed out, but this struck me so especially I had to copy it out:
"... all too many Christians have behaved as though the devil were a First Principle, on the same footing as God. They have paid more attention to evil and the problem of its eradication than to good and the methods by which individual goodness may be deepened, and the sum of goodness increased. The effects which follow too constant and intense a concentration upon evil are always disastrous.
Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse than it was, before the crusade began.
By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself."
Excellent.
Oh, Backus and I watched Taxi Driver earlier... all I have to say on the matter is that Robert DeNiro was one sexy beast in that film. Good times.
Now I'm reading another Huxley, one I've wanted to read for years and which Backus got me for Christmas (yes, he is the best boyfriend ever). It's called The Devils of Loudun: A True Story of Demonic Possession. There are multiple portions of it which just ask to be pointed out, but this struck me so especially I had to copy it out:
"... all too many Christians have behaved as though the devil were a First Principle, on the same footing as God. They have paid more attention to evil and the problem of its eradication than to good and the methods by which individual goodness may be deepened, and the sum of goodness increased. The effects which follow too constant and intense a concentration upon evil are always disastrous.
Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse than it was, before the crusade began.
By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself."
Excellent.
Oh, Backus and I watched Taxi Driver earlier... all I have to say on the matter is that Robert DeNiro was one sexy beast in that film. Good times.