--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Mr. [Aldous] Huxley has been the alarming…" description: "\"Mr. [Aldous] Huxley has been the alarming young man for a long time, a sort of perpetual clever nephew who can be relied on to flutter the lunch party...." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/203/elizabeth-bowen-1197_clever_mr-aldous-huxley-has-been-the-alarming-y_2740970.png" --- # Mr. \[Aldous\] Huxley has been the alarming young man for a… ![“Mr. [Aldous] Huxley has been the alarming young man for a long time, a sort of perpetual clever nephew who can be relied on to flutter the lunch party. Whatever will he say next? How does he think of those things? He has been deplored once or twice, but feeling is in his favor: he is steadily…” quote by Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/203/elizabeth-bowen-1197_clever_mr-aldous-huxley-has-been-the-alarming-y_2740970.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/203/elizabeth-bowen-1197_clever_mr-aldous-huxley-has-been-the-alarming-y_2740970.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/203/elizabeth-bowen-1197_clever_mr-aldous-huxley-has-been-the-alarming-y_2740970.png) > “Mr. \[Aldous\] Huxley has been the alarming young man for a long time, a sort of perpetual clever nephew who can be relied on to flutter the lunch party. Whatever will he say next? How does he think of those things? He has been deplored once or twice, but feeling is in his favor: he is steadily read. He is at once the truly clever person and the stupid person's idea of the clever person; he is expected to be relentless, to administer intellectual shocks.” [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote satirically describes a perpetually clever yet possibly shallow intellectual figure, highlighting both admiration and criticism. **In simple terms:** A witty but possibly shallow intellectual is both praised and mocked. Key Takeaway Recognize the dual perception of cleverness. Themes satire perception intellectualism Mood playful critical Type satirical observational When to use this quote - literary analysis - media commentary - social observation Key Concepts cultural critique personality archetype Questions to Reflect On - How does society value cleverness versus authenticity? - What risks arise from labeling someone as perpetually clever? A Different Perspective May overlook genuine depth in favor of novelty. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/aldous-huxley/) [Clever](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/clever/) [Clever person](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/clever-person/) [Doe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/doe/) [Expected](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/expected/) [Favors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/favors/) [Feelings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/feelings/) [Has beens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/has-beens/) [Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/huxley/) [Huxley Alarming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/huxley-alarming-3027163/) [Ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideas/) [Intellectual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intellectual/) [Intellectual Shocks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intellectual-shocks-3027164/) [Long](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long/) [Long time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long-time/) [Lunch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lunch/) [Men](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/men/) [Nephew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nephew/) [Next](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/next/) [Party](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/party/) [Perpetual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/perpetual/) [Persons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/persons/) [Relentless](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/relentless/) [Shock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shock/) [Stupid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stupid/) [Stupid person](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stupid-person/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) [Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/young/) [Young man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/young-man/) ## Related quotes > [Precisely because we do not communicate by singing, a song can be out of place but not out of character; it is just as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-h-auden/precisely-because-we-do-not-communicate-by-singing-a-song-can-be-out/) [W. H. Auden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-h-auden/) > [A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. 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You…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andy-warhol/when-people-are-ready-to-they-change-they-never-do-it-before-then-and-2/) [Andy Warhol](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andy-warhol/) > [“The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.” – Aldous Huxley”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aletheia-luna/the-more-powerful-and-original-a-mind-the-more-it-will-incline-2/) [Aletheia Luna](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aletheia-luna/) > [“The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/the-politics-of-those-whose-goal-is-beyond-time-are-always-pacific-it/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-postman/we-were-keeping-our-eye-on-1984-when-the-year-came-and-the-prophecy/) [Neil Postman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-postman/) > [“Huxley grasped, as Orwell did not, that it is not necessary to conceal anything from a public insensible to contradiction and narcotized by technological…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-postman/huxley-grasped-as-orwell-did-not-that-it-is-not-necessary-to-conceal/) [Neil Postman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-postman/) > [It's really hard to write a screenplay, it's nauseating. All those great writers that tried to write screenplays, they couldn't do it, most of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hampton-fancher/it-s-really-hard-to-write-a-screenplay-it-s-nauseating-all-those/) [Hampton Fancher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hampton-fancher/) > [“Suppose it becomes the acknowledged purpose of inventors and engineers, observed Aldous Huxley, to provide ordinary people with the means of 'doing profitable and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/suppose-it-becomes-the-acknowledged-purpose-of-inventors-and/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Rządzenie to sprawa stołka, nie kołka. Rządzi się przy pomocy mózgu i pośladków, nie pięści." - Aldous Huxley "Nowy, wspaniały świat”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/rz-dzenie-to-sprawa-sto-ka-nie-ko-ka-rz-dzi-si-przy-pomocy-m-zgu-i-po/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) ## More by Elizabeth Bowen > [Temperamentally, the writer exists on happenings, on contacts, conflicts, action and reaction, speed, pressure, tension. Were he acontemplative purely, he would not write.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/temperamentally-the-writer-exists-on-happenings-on-contacts-conflicts/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“Are you really an orphan? Yes, I am, said Portia a shade shortly. Are you? No, not at present, but I suppose it's a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/are-you-really-an-orphan-yes-i-am-said-portia-a-shade-shortly-are-you/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [It is not our exalted feelings, it is our sentiments that build the necessary home.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/it-is-not-our-exalted-feelings-it-is-our-sentiments-that-build-the/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Every love has a poetic relevance of its own; each love brings to light only what to it is relevant. Outside lies the junk-yard…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/every-love-has-a-poetic-relevance-of-its-own-each-love-brings-to/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [without fiction, either life would be insufficient or the winds from the north would blow too cold.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/without-fiction-either-life-would-be-insufficient-or-the-winds-from/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [One's sentiments -- call them that -- one's fidelities are so instinctive that one hardly knows they exist: only when they are betrayed or,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/one-s-sentiments-call-them-that-one-s-fidelities-are-so-instinctive/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Only in a house where one has learnt to be lonely does one have this solicitude for things. One's relation to them, the daily…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/only-in-a-house-where-one-has-learnt-to-be-lonely-does-one-have-this/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [To walk into history is to be free at once, to be at large among people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/to-walk-into-history-is-to-be-free-at-once-to-be-at-large-among-people/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [The wish to lead out one's lover must be a tribal feeling; the wish to be seen as loved is part of one's self-respect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/the-wish-to-lead-out-one-s-lover-must-be-a-tribal-feeling-the-wish-to/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Convention was our safeguard: could one have stronger?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/convention-was-our-safeguard-could-one-have-stronger/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“First love, with its frantic haughty imagination, swings its object clear of the everyday, over the rut of living, making him all looks, silences,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/first-love-with-its-frantic-haughty-imagination-swings-its-object/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [to leap is not only to leap, it is to hit the ground somewhere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/to-leap-is-not-only-to-leap-it-is-to-hit-the-ground-somewhere/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [That is partly why women marry - to keep up the fiction of being in the hub of things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/that-is-partly-why-women-marry-to-keep-up-the-fiction-of-being-in-the/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“But Miss Pym gave an impression, somehow, of having been attacked from within .”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/but-miss-pym-gave-an-impression-somehow-of-having-been-attacked-from/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [rudeness to Mrs. Dosely was like dropping a pat of butter on to a hot plate - it slid and melted away.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/rudeness-to-mrs-dosely-was-like-dropping-a-pat-of-butter-on-to-a-hot/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) [Explore all 275 Elizabeth Bowen quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) ## More Clever quotes > [In some circles where very heavy people think they have very heavy brains, words like "charming" and "clever" and "pretty" are all put-downs; all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andy-warhol/in-some-circles-where-very-heavy-people-think-they-have-very-heavy/) [Andy Warhol](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andy-warhol/) > [You're beautiful, cute, pretty, gorgeous, and fuck.. I ran out of words.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/raghib-clitso/you-re-beautiful-cute-pretty-gorgeous-and-fuck-i-ran-out-of-words/) [Raghib Clitso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/raghib-clitso/) > [What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straghtforward men.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dietrich-bonhoeffer/what-we-shall-need-is-not-geniuses-or-cynics-or-misanthropes-or/) [Dietrich Bonhoeffer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dietrich-bonhoeffer/) > [“There was once an old but clever donkey, who never liked the sting of any bee, Nor for all the Slung mud, did he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/priyavrat-thareja/there-was-once-an-old-but-clever-donkey-who-never-liked-the-sting-of/) [Priyavrat Thareja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/priyavrat-thareja/) > [ There was another reason \[she\] took her books whenever they went away. They were her home when she was somewhere strange. 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It's not Swift.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rory-bremner/people-may-say-that-what-i-do-is-very-clever-but-it-s-not-really-at/) [Rory Bremner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rory-bremner/) > [I do remember what I said. The promise. To protect her. If I'd done that ... even if I didn't make it, you wouldn't've…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joss-whedon/i-do-remember-what-i-said-the-promise-to-protect-her-if-i-d-done-that/) [Joss Whedon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joss-whedon/) > [“Regrets are like mistresses," he informed her. "I ..." Her hand dropped from the handle. "What?" "Good men don't have them." 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