Iris Murdoch Quotes

Quotes about:

• We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.

  Iris Murdoch

  Life, Reality, Tasks

  In 'The Times' 15 April 1983 'Profile'

  63 Copy quote

• Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea, and not know when or with what cargo they will return to port.

  Iris Murdoch

  Inspirational, Responsibility, Sea

  Iris Murdoch (2001). “The Bell”, p.139, Penguin

  51 Copy quote

• We can only learn to love by loving.

  Iris Murdoch

  Love, Deep Romantic, True Love

  Iris Murdoch (2001). “The Bell”, p.193, Penguin

  66 Copy quote

• There is no beyond, there is only here, the infinitely small, infinitely great and utterly demanding present.

  Iris Murdoch

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  29 Copy quote

• For most of us, for almost all of us, truth can be attained, if at all, only in silence. It is in silence that the human spirit touches the divine.

  Iris Murdoch

  Silence, Spirit, Divine

  Iris Murdoch (1977). “Under the Net”, p.69, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

• One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats, and if some of these can be inexpensive and quickly procured so much the better.

  Iris Murdoch

  Happy Life, Secret, Life Is

  Iris Murdoch (2001). “The Sea, The Sea”, p.30, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self.

  Iris Murdoch

  Happiness, Happy, Gratitude

  "The Nice And The Good".

  29 Copy quote

• Education doesn’t make you happy. Nor does freedom. We don’t become happy just because we’re free – if we are. Or because we’ve been educated – if we have. But because education may be the means by which we realize we are happy. It opens our eyes, our ears, tells us where delights are lurking, convinces us that there is only one freedom of any importance whatsoever, that of the mind, and gives us the assurance – the confidence – to walk the path our mind, our educated mind, offers.

  Iris Murdoch

  Mean, Eye, Convince Us

  15 Copy quote

• Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.

  Iris Murdoch

  Italian, Shoes, Boots

  31 Copy quote

• People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.

  Iris Murdoch

  Nature, Flower, Sunshine

  Iris Murdoch (2001). “A Fairly Honourable Defeat”, p.135, Penguin

  35 Copy quote

• Language is a machine for making falsehoods.

  Iris Murdoch

  Inspirational, Machines, Language

  Iris Murdoch (1977). “Under the Net”, p.51, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

• The absolute yearning of one human body for another particular body and its indifference to substitutes is one of life's major mysteries.

  Iris Murdoch

  Life, Relationship, Marriage

  Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.273, Penguin

  16 Copy quote

• Love is the perception of individuals. Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.

  Iris Murdoch

  Love, Inspirational, Real

  "Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature".

  33 Copy quote

• The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.

  Iris Murdoch

  Healing, Heart, Men

  IRIS MURDOCH (1965). “THE RED AND THE GREEN”

  46 Copy quote

• Remember that the secret of all learning is patience and that curiosity is not the same thing as a thirst for knowledge.

  Iris Murdoch

  Learning, Secret, Curiosity

  Iris Murdoch (1956). “The flight from the enchanter”, Viking Pr

  8 Copy quote

• Most real relationships are involuntary.

  Iris Murdoch

  Real, Real Relationship, Involuntary

  Iris Murdoch (1999). “A Severed Head, The Black Prince, The Sea, The Sea”

  13 Copy quote

• Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they hear is a continuous scream.

  Iris Murdoch

  People, Literature, Wavelength

  Iris Murdoch (2010). “The Message To The Planet”, p.536, Random House

  64 Copy quote

• One should go easy on smashing other people's lies. Better to concentrate on one's own.

  Iris Murdoch

  Lying, People, Easy

  Iris Murdoch (1977). “Henry and Cato”, Viking Pr

  13 Copy quote

• It is not enough that I succeed, everyone else must fail.

  Iris Murdoch

  Succeed, Failing, Enough

  117 Copy quote

• Freedom may be a value in politics, but it is not a value in morals.

  Iris Murdoch

  May, Moral, Values

  Iris Murdoch (1987). “The Unicorn”, p.76, Penguin

  23 Copy quote

• Art and morality are, with certain provisos…one. Their essence is the same. The essence of both of them is love. Love is the perception of individuals. Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.

  Iris Murdoch

  Art, Real, Love Is

  1959 'The Sublime and the Good'.

  16 Copy quote

• Jealousy comes from self-love rather than from true love.

  Iris Murdoch

  Jealousy, Giving Up, Don't Give Up

  29 Copy quote

• Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.

  Iris Murdoch

  Marriage, Women, Writing

  Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.29, Penguin

  39 Copy quote

• The most essential and fundamental aspect of culture is the study of literature, since this is an education in how to picture and understand human situations.

  Iris Murdoch

  Essentials, Culture, Fundamentals

  Iris Murdoch (1967). “The Sovereignty of Good Over Other Concepts”, p.33, Psychology Press

  19 Copy quote

• The cry of equality pulls everyone down.

  Iris Murdoch

  Equality, Cry

  The Observer, September 13, 1987.

  17 Copy quote

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