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'

  74 Copy quote

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

  Iris Murdoch

  Italian, Shoes, Boots

  35 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

  13 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.

  36 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

  54 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

  10 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

  12 Copy quote

• Being in love is an exhausting business.

  Iris Murdoch

  Being In Love, Love Is, Exhausting

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

  9 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".

  34 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

  71 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

  20 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".

  37 Copy quote

• The chief requirement of the good life, is to live without any image of oneself.

  Iris Murdoch

  Good Life, Requirements, Life Is

  Iris Murdoch (2001). “The Bell”, p.112, Penguin

  14 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

  39 Copy quote

• Language is a machine for making falsehoods.

  Iris Murdoch

  Inspirational, Machines, Language

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

  9 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

  19 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”

  48 Copy quote

• Man's creative struggle, his search for wisdom and truth, is a love story.

  Iris Murdoch

  Struggle, Men, Creative

  Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.23, Penguin

  7 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'.

  18 Copy quote

• Love is the last and secret name of all the virtues.

  Iris Murdoch

  Love Is, Names, Secret

  Iris Murdoch (2001). “A Fairly Honourable Defeat”, p.74, Penguin

  19 Copy quote

• Love is the source of our greatest errors; but when it is even partially refined it is the energy and the passion of the soul in its search for Good, the force that joins us to Good and joins us to the world through Good. Its existence is the unmistakable sign that we are spiritual creatures, attracted by excellence and made for the Good. It is a reflection of the warmth and light of the sun.

  Iris Murdoch

  Love, Life, Spiritual

  Iris Murdoch (2013). “The Sovereignty of Good”, p.100, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

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

  Iris Murdoch

  Jealousy, Giving Up, Don't Give Up

  33 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”

  17 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”

  8 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

  40 Copy quote

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