| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 29948 |
| QUOTATION: | Drill and uniforms impose an architecture on the crowd. An army’s beautiful. But that’s not all; it panders to lower instincts than the aesthetic. The spectacle of human beings reduced to automatism satisfies the lust for power. Looking at mechanized slaves, one fancies oneself a master. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), British novelist. Philip Quarles, in Point Counter Point, ch. 29 (1928).
This passage comes from the notebook of Philip Quarles, the principal character in the narrative. As a writer committed to the novel of ideas, Quarles is in large part Huxley’s self- portrait. Here Quarles reflects on having witnessed the assembly of a militia founded by a British fascist, Everard Webley, modeled on Oswald Mosely. |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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