Quote by Aldous Huxley

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.

Comment

In context: "The poet is, etymologically, the maker. Like all makers, he requires a stock of raw materials — in his case, experience. Now experience is not a matter of having actually swum the Hellespont, or danced with the dervishes, or slept in a doss-house. It is a matter of sensibility and intuition, of seeing and hearing the significant things, of paying attention at the right moments, of understanding and co-ordinating. Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him."

Source

Book: Texts and Pretexts

Categories: experience