Aldous Huxley? George Sokolsky? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Social media enables people to express righteous indignation by joining together to form electronic mobs. The chance to target and maltreat individuals while maintaining a good conscience is psychologically appealing. The opportunity to hurt and pull down others is enticing to some people.
Apparently, the English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley made an observation of this type before the existence of social media. Huxley’s remark supposedly appeared in the novel “Crome Yellow”, but I have carefully examined that book, and I was unable to find any matching statement. This situation is confusing. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Aldous Huxley was commissioned to write an introduction to a collector’s edition of Samuel Butler’s nineteenth century novel “Erewhon”. Huxley placed the date of July 24, 1933 at the end of his introduction, and the book was issued by the Limited Editions Club in 1934. Huxley commented on the motivations of people. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The surest way to work up a crusade in favour of some good cause is to promise people that they will have a chance of maltreating someone. Men must be bribed to build up and do good by the offer of an opportunity to hurt and pull down. To be able to destroy with a good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’—this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.
QI has searched the 1921 satirical novel “Crome Yellow”2 by Huxley for the phrases “righteous indignation”, “good conscience”, and “pull down”. There were no matches for these phrases in the book.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Huxley’s commentary was memorable, and in 1938 the syndicated columnist George Sokolsky reprinted an excerpt:3
Aldous Huxley in an introduction to Samuel Butler’s “Erewhon” says:
The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people that they will have a chance of maltreating some one. Men must be bribed to build up and do good by the offer of an opportunity to hurt and pull down.
In 1964 the collection “Contemporary Quotations” compiled by James B. Simpson contained the following entry:4
The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people that they will have a chance of maltreating someone. . . . To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior “righteous indignation”—this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.
Aldous Huxley, among comments quoted in his obituaries.
In 1969 “The Commercial Appeal” of Memphis, Tennessee printed the following passage under the title “Words Worth Remembering”:5
The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people that they will have a chance of maltreating someone . . . To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior “righteous indignation”—that is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.
—Novelist Aldous Huxley
In 1996 a version of the quotation appeared within “The International Thesaurus of Quotations”. Unfortunately, the accompanying citation was incorrect:6
To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior “righteous indignation”—this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.
ALDOUS HUXLEY, CROME YELLOW (1921)
In 2020 “Spite: and the Upside of Your Dark Side” by Simon McCarthy-Jones presented an incorrect source for the quotation:7
This is an almost irresistible temptation. The novelist Aldous Huxley flagged its potency a century ago. In his 1921 book, Crome Yellow, Huxley wrote: ‘To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behaviour “righteous indignation” — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.’
In conclusion, Aldous Huxley deserves credit for this quotation. He wrote it within the introduction to an edition of Samuel Butler’s novel “Erewhon”. The quotation was reprinted by the syndicated columnist George Sokolsky in 1938. The quotation does not appear in the novel “Crome Yellow” despite the mistaken claims of some books.
Image Notes: Illustration of a stamp which displays “CANCELLED” from TheDigitalArtist at Pixabay. The image has been resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Carl Olson whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Special thanks to David Wilton who accessed the 1934 edition of “Erewhon” by Samuel Butler which contained the introduction by Aldous Huxley. Also, thanks to the Firestone Library at Princeton University which held “Erewhon” in its special collections.
Update History: On July 10, 2024 the citation for the introduction dated July 24, 1933 was added to the article.
- 1934, Erewhon by Samuel Butler, Section: Introduction by Aldous Huxley, Date of Introduction: July 24, 1933, Start Page xv, Quote Page xv and xvi, Publisher: Limited Editions Club Inc., Printer: Pynson Printers, New York. (Verified with scans of book held in Special Collections of Firestone Library at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey) ↩︎
- 1921, Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley, (The target quotation is absent), Chatto & Windus, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1938 February 6, Sunday Herald-Leader, Many Mansions by George E. Sokolsky, Quote Page 4, Column 4, Lexington, Kentucky. (Newspapers_com) (Note: QI has verified this 1938 citation; however, QI has not yet verified the quotation directly in the 1934 edition of “Erewhon”.) ↩︎
- 1964, Contemporary Quotations, Compiled by James B. Simpson, Chapter: Wisdom, Philosophy, and Other Musings, Quote Page 311, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1969 July 13, The Commercial Appeal, Section: Mid-South Magazine, Words Worth Remembering, Quote Page 2, Column 2, Memphis, Tennessee. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1996, The International Thesaurus of Quotations, Compiled by Eugene Ehrlich and Marshall DeBruhl, (Revised and Updated), Topic: Destruction, Quote Page 161, HarperResource: HarperCollins, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
- 2020, Spite: and the Upside of Your Dark Side by Simon McCarthy-Jones, Chapter: Conclusions: The Future of Spite, Quote Page 182, Oneworld Publications, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎