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Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch Quotes

Author

Iris Murdoch was an Irish-Canadian philosopher and author, born on July 15, 1919, in Dublin, Ireland, and passed away on February 8, 1999. She is celebrated for her philosophical novels that intertwine moral and ethical dilemmas with complex narratives. Murdoch's work has left a lasting impact on the literary world, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century.

Famous Iris Murdoch Quotes

“I could scarcely believe what I saw and I had the sense as in a nightmare of being involved in something both wildly improbable and relentlessly inevitable. This had to happen. Yet how could it have happened?”

Inevitable Nightmare Iris Murdoch Surreal Disbelief Improbable A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“This sort of quiet gazing, which was like a feeding of the heart, was something I had not experienced with any other woman.”

Heart Romantic Intimacy Iris Murdoch Simile Gazing A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“Cambridge by moonlight was light blue and brownish black. There was no mist here and a great vault of clear stars hung over the city with an intent luxurious brilliance. It was the sort of night when one knows of other galaxies. My long shadow glided before me on the pavement. Although it was not yet eleven o'clock the place seemed empty and I moved through it like a mysterious and lonely harlequin in a painting: like an assassin.”

Beautiful Stars Setting Description Iris Murdoch Simile Nighttime Galaxies A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“With a fluency that amazed me lies and treachery streamed from my lips. I was in extreme pain.”

Pain Lying Lies Iris Murdoch Faking It A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“It had all been quite uncannily painless. I was left with a sense of not having suffered enough. Only sometimes in dreams did I experience certain horrors, glimpses of punishment which would perhaps yet find its hour.”

Suffering Dreams Punishment Iris Murdoch Uncanny Painless Portents A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I touched the Waterford glass with my finger: and in its ring I heard the echo of a voice saying You do not really want your wife back after all. I answered the voice in my heart: a bond of this kind is deeper and stronger than wanting or not wanting. Wherever I am in the world and whenever I am I shall always be Antonia.”

Heart Marriage Connection Iris Murdoch Bond A Severed Head Unbreakable Bond

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“You've got to see me, Martin. I'm to blame. I've never been quite and entirely myself with you. The situation didn't let me be. The untruthfulness infected everything. I must break out a little? Do you see at all?”

Self Identity Trapped Iris Murdoch Dishonesty A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I could not see other human beings at present.”

Alone Iris Murdoch Recluse Antisocial Seclusion Misanthropic A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“To describe one's character is difficult and not necessarily illuminating. The story which follows will reveal, whether I will or no, what sort of person I am.”

Character Description Iris Murdoch Narrator A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“We did really love each other . . . didn't we? Didn't we? In the name of that reality — M.”

Love Reality Sad Breakup Iris Murdoch Letter A Severed Head Epistolary

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I tried to think these thoughts but they remained intolerably abstract, while a pain in my body told me what was real.”

Mind Real Body Pain Thoughts Abstract Iris Murdoch A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I was now, all the time, unutterably tired as if simply keeping alive was a terrible effort.”

Tired Iris Murdoch Suicidal Depressed A Severed Head World Weary

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“Your love for me does not exist in the real world. Yes, it is love, I do not deny it. But not every love has a course to run, smooth or otherwise, and this love has no course at all . . . But that is remote from love and remote from ordinary life. As real people we do not exist for each other.”

Love Iris Murdoch Unrequited Love Figurative Language Impossible Love A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“The trouble with people nowadays is they don't know how to do nothing.”

Iris Murdoch Idle Inactivity A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“There is a time limit to how long a spirited young person can be kept in cold storage.”

Youth Iris Murdoch Spirited Limbo A Severed Head On The Shelf

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“Was it unpleasant?" "I don't know," I said. "Everything is so unpleasant nowadays it's hard to tell.”

Humor Witty Dialogue Iris Murdoch Banter A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I said, "Your brother is in bed with my wife." I added, "I just took them up some wine in bed.”

Humor Witty Dialogue Iris Murdoch A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“It was for me a moment of great peace. I did not know then that it was the last, the very last moment of peace, the end of the old innocent world, the final moment before I was plunged into the nightmare of which these ensuing pages tell the story.”

Peace Nightmare Iris Murdoch Foreshadowing Narrator A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I wanted consolation, I wanted love, I wanted, to save me, some colossal and powerful love such as I had never known before.”

Love Salvation Iris Murdoch Consolation A Severed Head Redemptive Love

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I shook myself out of these dreams. There were places where my thoughts must not go; and as I then reflected how few places were left where they could now go without incurring pain or guilt I decided that I needed some more whisky.”

Humor Drinking Iris Murdoch A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I lit another cigarette and wondered distantly how I would get through the day. It was a problem demanding some ingenuity.”

Depression Smoking Iris Murdoch Ennui A Severed Head Interminable

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I have never lived in Ireland, though I retain a sentimental sense of connexion with that poor bitch of a country.”

Humor Ireland Iris Murdoch A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“Understanding was out of the question; and indeed how passionately, just then, I did not want to be understood.”

Understanding Iris Murdoch A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“We'll see you through, Martin," said Antonia . . . "So do not be guilty or worried, darling Martin." "I won't be guilty or worried, I'll be raving mad," I said. "I don't want you to see me through. I want to be left alone by both of you at long last.”

Humor Dialogue Iris Murdoch Left Alone A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“It occurred to me as scandalous that Palmer and Antonia, after the scene in which I had taken part in the drawing-room, should have gone out to the opera. Antonia ought to have been waiting for me to come back. I resented this indifference to the tempo of my own drama.”

Humor Drama Iris Murdoch Self Centered Narcissist A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“You are heroic, Mr. Lynch-Gibbon. The knight of infinite humiliation. One does not know whether to kiss your feet or to recommend that you have a good analysis." She said it as one might say "a good thrashing.”

Humor Witty Dialogue Iris Murdoch Psychoanalysis A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“What I really wanted just then was to put Georgie in cold storage. It is unfortunate that other human beings cannot be conveniently immobilized.”

Humor Iris Murdoch Misanthropic A Severed Head

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

“I was perhaps moreover a little the dupe of that illusion of lovers that the beloved object must, somehow, respond, that an extremity of love not only merits but compels some return.”

Love Lovers Illusion Iris Murdoch A Severed Head Requited Love

Book:A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

About the Author

Born: July 15, 1919
Died: February 8, 1999
Known for: Author
Quotes: 941

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Black PrinceRelated source material

The Message To The PlanetRelated source material

The Green KnightRelated source material

The Nice and the GoodRelated source material

The Sea, The SeaRelated source material

The Sacred and Profane Love MachineRelated source material

A Severed HeadRelated source material

Henry and CatoRelated source material

The UnicornRelated source material

A Fairly Honourable DefeatRelated source material

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