Iris Murdoch Quotes - Page 2

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• Our destiny can be examined, but it cannot be justified or totally explained. We are simply here.

  Iris Murdoch

  Inspirational, Destiny, Justified

  Iris Murdoch (2013). “The Sovereignty of Good”, p.77, Routledge

  20 Copy quote

• Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can still see very little but you can smell the earth and feel the wind blowing.

  Iris Murdoch

  Doors, Wind Blowing, Smell

  Iris Murdoch (1961). “Under the Net: A Novel”

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• It's easier to sell junk when you're known than works of genius when you're unknown.

  Iris Murdoch

  Junk, Genius, Easier

  Iris Murdoch (1977). “Under the Net”, p.54, Penguin

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• 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

  40 Copy quote

• Most of our love is shabby stuff, but there is always a thin line of gold, the bit of pure love on which all the rest depends -- and which redeems all the rest.

  Iris Murdoch

  Love Is, Gold, Our Love

  Iris Murdoch (1962). “An Unofficial Rose: A Novel”

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• When does one ever know a human being? Perhaps only after one has realized the impossibility of knowledge and renounced the desire for it and finally ceased to feel even the need of it. But then what one achieves is no longer knowledge, it is simply a kind of co-existence; and this too is one of the guises of love.

  Iris Murdoch

  Desire, Doe, Needs

  Iris Murdoch (1961). “Under the Net: A Novel”

  28 Copy quote

• The cry of equality pulls everyone down.

  Iris Murdoch

  Equality, Cry

  The Observer, September 13, 1987.

  22 Copy quote

• It is in the capacity to love, that is to SEE, that the liberation of the soul from fantasy consists. The freedom which is a proper human goal is the freedom from fantasy, that is the realism of compassion. What I have called fantasy, the proliferation of blinding self-centered aims and images, is itself a powerful system of energy, and most of what is often called 'will' or 'willing' belongs to this system. What counteracts the system is attention to reality inspired by, consisting of, love.

  Iris Murdoch

  Love, Powerful, Reality

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• We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness is the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason.

  Iris Murdoch

  Secret, Inward, Most Amazing

  Iris Murdoch (2001). “The Sea, The Sea”, p.159, Penguin

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• for most of us the space between 'dreaming on things to come' and 'it is too late, it is all over' is too tiny to enter.

  Iris Murdoch

  Dream, Opportunity, Space

  Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.25, Penguin

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• 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

  67 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

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• Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's really a machine for making falsehoods. When we really speak the truth, words are insufficient. Almost everything except things like "pass the gravy" is a lie of a sort. And that being the case, I shall shut up. Oh, and... pass the gravy.

  Iris Murdoch

  Lying, People, Feelings

  "Fictional character: Iris Murdoch". "Iris", www.imdb.com. 2001.

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• On connecting: Where does one person end and another person begin?

  Iris Murdoch

  People, Doe, Ends

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

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

  Iris Murdoch

  Succeed, Failing, Enough

  121 Copy quote

• I think being a woman is like being Irish. Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same.

  Iris Murdoch

  Nice, Women, Reality

  The Red and the Green ch. 2 (1965)

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• Being in love is an exhausting business.

  Iris Murdoch

  Being In Love, Love Is, Exhausting

  Iris Murdoch (1962). “An Unofficial Rose: A Novel”

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• 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

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• A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.

  Iris Murdoch

  Rain, Criticism, Important

  The Times, July 6, 1989.

  90 Copy quote

• Not to have been born is undoubtedly best, but sound sleep is second best.

  Iris Murdoch

  Sleep, Sound, Second Best

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• I have used the word "attention," which I borrow from Simone Weil, to express the idea of a just and loving gaze directed upon individual reality. I believe this to be the characteristic and proper mark of the active moral agent.

  Iris Murdoch

  Believe, Reality, Ideas

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

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• Every artist is an unhappy lover. And unhappy lovers want to tell their story.

  Iris Murdoch

  Artist, Unhappy, Stories

  Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.19, Penguin

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• Words are the most subtle symbols which we possess and our human fabric depends on them.

  Iris Murdoch

  Fabric, Subtle, Symbols

  Iris Murdoch (2013). “The Sovereignty of Good”, p.33, Routledge

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• Literature could be said to be a sort of disciplined technique for arousing certain emotions.

  Iris Murdoch

  Technique, Literature, Emotion

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• All art deals with the absurd and aims at the simple. Good art speaks truth, indeed is truth, perhaps the only truth.

  Iris Murdoch

  Art, Simple, Speak

  Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.24, Penguin

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