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Famous Iris Murdoch Quotes
“Dogs are very different from cats in that they can be images of human virtue. They are like us.”
“Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.”
“Our destiny can be examined, but it cannot be justified or totally explained. We are simply here.”
“Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating!”
“The bereaved cannot communicate with the unbereaved.”
“One doesn't have to get anywhere in a marriage. It's not a public conveyance.”
“The entry of a child into any situation changes the whole situation.”
“I just enjoy translating, it's like opening one's mouth and hearing someone else's voice emerge.”
“Upon the demon-ridden pilgrimage of human life, what next I wonder.”
“The sending of a letter constitutes a magical grasp upon the future.”
“The chief requirement of the good life, is to live without any image of oneself.”
“Real worship involves waiting.”
“The most potent and sacred command which can be laid upon any artist is the command: wait.”
“Freedom may be a value in politics, but it is not a value in morals.”
“It's easier to sell junk when you're known than works of genius when you're unknown.”
“We re all muddlers. The thing is to see is when one's got to stop muddling.”
“Love can't always do work. Sometimes it just has to look into the darkness.”
“Socrates wrote nothing. Christ wrote nothing.”
“People who boast of happy marriages are, I submit, usually self-deceivers, if not actually liars.”
“On connecting: Where does one person end and another person begin?”
“To be a complete victim may be another source of power.”
“There is nothing like early promiscuous sex for dispelling life's bright mysterious expectations.”
“Not to have been born is undoubtedly best, but sound sleep is second best.”
“Oh the piercing sadness of life in the midst of its ordinariness!”