Iris Murdoch Quotes - Page 2

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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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Intense mutual erotic love, love which involves with the flesh all the most refined sexual being of the spirit, which reveals and perhaps even ex nihilo creates spirit as sex, is comparatively rare in this inconvenient world.

Iris Murdoch

Love, Sex, Erotic

Iris Murdoch (1984). “The Sacred and Profane Love Machine”, p.195, Penguin

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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

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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

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The cry of equality pulls everyone down.

Iris Murdoch

Equality, Cry

The Observer, September 13, 1987.

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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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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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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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Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea.

Iris Murdoch

Book, Writing, Ideas

Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.156, 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.

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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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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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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”

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Another person's illness is often harder to bear than one's own.

Iris Murdoch

Bears, Illness, Harder

Iris Murdoch (1987). “The Unicorn”, p.70, Penguin

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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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Only love has clear vision. Hatred has cloudy vision. When we hate we know not what we do.

Iris Murdoch

Hate, Hatred, Vision

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

Iris Murdoch

Succeed, Failing, Enough

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Good writing is full of surprises and novelties, moving in a direction you don't expect.

Iris Murdoch

Moving, Writing, Novelty

Iris Murdoch (2003). “From a Tiny Corner in the House of Fiction: Conversations with Iris Murdoch”, p.134, Univ of South Carolina Press

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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 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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Anything that consoles is fake.

Iris Murdoch

Fake People, Fake, Console

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We shall be better prepared for the future if we see how terrible, how doomed the present is.

Iris Murdoch

Time, Fate, Literature

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Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating!

Iris Murdoch

Philosophy, Food, Science

Iris Murdoch (1989). “The Book and the Brotherhood”, p.32, Penguin

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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

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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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Iris Murdoch

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Born: July 15, 1919
Died: February 8, 1999
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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