I suppose the quotes below are somewhat controversial even today and the book, “Grey Eminence” was something thrust upon me by a QiGong colleague in one of many book discussions that come and go. Most of these discussions are ignored but I gave it a go and it took me a long time to get around to finishing it. I usually have a few books going and as the book developed I finally pushed through and finished it. It isn’t a particularly long book either, it is fairly easy to read even with the occasional French and Latin quotes. I feel the book illustrates some touchy topics about religion and politics. The quotes below stood out for me.

“The earliest literary reference to ‘holy indifference’ occurs in the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna assures Arjuna that it is right for him to slaughter his enemies, provided always that he does so in a spirit of non-attachment. When the same doctrine was used by the Illuminés of Picardy to justify sexual promiscuity, all right-thinking men, including Father Joseph, were properly horrified. But for some strange reason murder has always seemed more respectable than fornication. Few people are shocked when they hear God described as the God of Battles; but what an outcry there would be if anyone spoke of him as the God of Brothels!”

(from “Grey Eminence” by Aldous Huxley, David Bradshaw)

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“Returning to his self-examination, he was able to discover a kind of cosmic and metaphysical justification for his schemes in the thought that what seemed bad from a merely human viewpoint might really and actually be good.”

(from “Grey Eminence” by Aldous Huxley, David Bradshaw)

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“God, the avenger, might have his reasons for wishing to destroy large numbers of Central Europeans. Indeed, since history was assumed by Father Joseph to be an expression of the intentions of divine providence, and since, as a matter of historical fact, large numbers of Central Europeans were in process of being starved and slaughtered, it was manifest that God, the avenger, did desire their destruction. Therefore, the policy of prolonging the war was not wrong.”

(from “Grey Eminence” by Aldous Huxley, David Bradshaw)

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“Therefore (so runs the implied argument) we can make war, exploit the poor, enslave the coloured races, and all without the smallest qualm of conscience; for our victims are illustrating the great principle of vicarious suffering and, so far from wronging them, we are actually doing them a service by making it possible for them to ‘suffer and die, that others (by a happy coincidence, ourselves) may live and be happy and well’.”

(from “Grey Eminence” by Aldous Huxley, David Bradshaw)