Havelock Ellis Quotes

At the present day the crude theory of the sexual impulse held on one side, and the ignorant rejection of theory altogether on the other side, are beginning to be seen as both alike unjustified.

Havelock Ellis



Birth-control is effecting, and promising to effect, many functions in our social life.

Havelock Ellis



Education, whatever else it should or should not be, must be an inoculation against the poisons of life and an adequate equipment in knowledge and skill for meeting the chances of life.

Havelock Ellis



Every man of genius sees the world at a different angle from his fellows, and there is his tragedy.

Havelock Ellis



Failing to find in women exactly the same kind of sexual emotions, as they find in themselves, men have concluded that there are none there at all.

Havelock Ellis



For every fresh stage in our lives we need a fresh education, and there is no stage for which so little educational preparation is made as that which follows the reproductive period.

Havelock Ellis



In philosophy, it is not the attainment of the goal that matters, it is the things that are met along the way.

Havelock Ellis



In the early days of Christianity the exercise of chastity was frequently combined with a close and romantic intimacy of affection between the sexes which shocked austere moralists.

Havelock Ellis



It is becoming clear that the old platitudes can no longer be maintained, and that if we wish to improve our morals we must first improve our knowledge.

Havelock Ellis



It is on our failures that we base a new and different and better success.

Havelock Ellis



No act can be quite so intimate as the sexual embrace.

Havelock Ellis



Of woman as a real human being, with sexual needs and sexual responsibilities, morality has often known nothing.

Havelock Ellis



Socialism also brings us up against the hard rock of eugenic fact which, if we neglect it, will dash our most beautiful social construction to fragments.

Havelock Ellis



Still, whether we like it or not, the task of speeding up the decrease of the human population becomes increasingly urgent.

Havelock Ellis



The average husband enjoys the total effect of his home but is usually unable to contribute any of the details of work and organisation that make it enjoyable.

Havelock Ellis



The by-product is sometimes more valuable than the product.

Havelock Ellis



The husband - by primitive instinct partly, certainly by ancient tradition - regards himself as the active partner in matters of love and his own pleasure as legitimately the prime motive for activity.

Havelock Ellis



The more rapidly a civilization progresses, the sooner it dies for another to rise in its place.

Havelock Ellis



The parents have not only to train their children: it is of at least equal importance that they should train themselves.

Havelock Ellis



The place where optimism flourishes most is the lunatic asylum.

Havelock Ellis