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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

“Of course I love Arnold, but I can hate him too, and it can go along with love that one never forgives certain things.”

Iris Murdoch Love And Hate The Black Prince Unforgivable

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“Coming events do cast shadows.”

Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Foreshadowing

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Source: The Black Prince

“However one must ask not just, is it amusing, is it exciting, but is it a work of art?”

Writing Iris Murdoch Critique Novels Evaluation The Black Prince Meta Literary Merit Interrogating Literary Value

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“I'm not like other people, my life just doesn't work, it never has.”

Life Iris Murdoch Alienation Difference Lament Unlucky The Black Prince Outsider

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Source: The Black Prince

“Life is horrible, horrible, horrible, said the philosopher.”

Life Philosophy Philosopher Horrible Philosophy Of Life Pessimism Iris Murdoch Negativity Nihilism The Black Prince

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Source: The Black Prince

“The young are self-satisfied really and utterly ruthless.”

Iris Murdoch Ruthless The Black Prince Youths Self Satisfied The Young

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Source: The Black Prince

“The book is quite serious and quite funny. (Most novels are.)”

Humor Books Iris Murdoch Novels Commentary The Black Prince Meta Observational

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Source: The Black Prince

“For the moment however behold me sitting with Priscilla and Francis. A domestic interior. It is about ten o'clock in the evening and the curtains are drawn.”

Technique Setting Description Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Narrator Setting The Scene

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“But what words exactly did he use? People who aren't writers never describe things exactly.”

Writers Questioning Iris Murdoch Precision The Black Prince Descriptions

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Source: The Black Prince

“I'm not interested. I never liked him. He's some sort scoundrel.”

Humor Dialogue Dislike Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Bad Person Scoundrel

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Source: The Black Prince

“You get so worked up and flowery! You sound as if you were quoting something all the time!”

Humor Dialogue Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Quoting Flowery

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Source: The Black Prince

“A few people paused to look at him, but Londoners were by now so accustomed to 'weirdies' of all kinds that his ritual aroused little interest.”

Humor London Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Londoners Passerby Onlookers Weirdies

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“I struggled with a nebulous work which seemed now a nouvelle, now a vast novel, wherein a hero not unlike myself pursued, amid ghostly incidents, a series of reflections about life and art.”

Writing Writer Plot Creative Process Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Meta Struggling

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“Give yourself to these great works of art. They suffice for a lifetime.”

Art Advice Lifetime Works Of Art Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Enduring Great Works Of Art

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Source: The Black Prince

“Shall I come too?" said Francis. "I might be useful. After all, I am still a doctor in the eyes of God.”

Humor Dialogue Absurd Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Farcical

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Source: The Black Prince

“The room had the rather sinister tedium which some bedrooms have, a sort of weary banality which is a reminder of death. A dressing table can be a terrible thing.”

Humor Death Description Iris Murdoch Morbid The Black Prince

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Source: The Black Prince

“A marriage is a very secret place.”

Relationships Secret Marriage Iris Murdoch The Black Prince

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Source: The Black Prince

“Partly, I still felt something of the sheer unholy excitement which I had experienced initially at the thought of a friend (especially this one) in trouble.”

Friendship Iris Murdoch Petty The Black Prince Vindictive

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“I felt blank dismay, instant fear for myself. I did not want to be involved in any mess of Priscilla's. I did not even want to have to be sorry for Priscilla.”

Selfish Mess Iris Murdoch Self Preservation The Black Prince Reluctance Uninvolved

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Source: The Black Prince

“Arnold's 'joke' was too obscenely good not to be taken as a portent: it was the visible part of some huge invisible horror.”

Horror Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Portent

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“Tuesday? My whole concept of the future had crumpled.”

Iris Murdoch Shattered The Black Prince The Future Incomprehensible

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Source: The Black Prince

“I know time doesn't heal. That's the silliest idea of all.”

Time Healing Falsehood Iris Murdoch Untruth The Black Prince Time Heals Platitude

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“Those who cry out the truth to an indifferent world too often weary, fall silent or come to doubt their own wit.”

Giving Up Iris Murdoch The Black Prince In Vain Unheeded

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Source: The Black Prince

“That art gives charm to terrible things is perhaps its glory, perhaps its curse. Art is a doom.”

Art Dramatic Charm Iris Murdoch Doom The Black Prince Romanticize

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Source: The Black Prince

“Only stories and magic really endure.”

Stories Magic Endure Lasting Iris Murdoch The Black Prince

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Source: The Black Prince

“I know that human life is horrible. I know that it is utterly unlike art. I have no religion except my own task of being. Conventional religions are dream stuff. Always a world of fear and horror lies but a millimetre away. Any man, even the greatest, can be broken in a moment and has no refuge. Any theory which denies this is a lie.”

Life Religion Iris Murdoch Worldview Pessimist The Black Prince Nihilist

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“Or did I know by intuition that wonderful and terrible things were really imminent at last, trembling into being just behind the curtain of the future?”

Intuition Excitement Dramatic Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Premonition The Future Foreshadowing

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Source: The Black Prince

“It might be most dramatically effective to begin the tale at the moment when Arnold Baffin rang me up and said, "Bradley, could you come round here please, I think I have just killed my wife.”

Opening Storytelling Narrative Dramatic Iris Murdoch Beginning The Black Prince Meta Narrator

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Source: The Black Prince

“Then the front doorbell (already too long delayed by my rambling narrative) rang.”

Humor Narrative Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Self Deprecating Meta Narrator

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Source: The Black Prince

“Some people are just 'diminishers' and 'spoilers' for others. I suppose almost everybody diminishes someone. A saint would be nobody's spoiler.”

Iris Murdoch Toxic Relationships Toxic People The Black Prince

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Source: The Black Prince

“The virtues have secret names: they are, so difficult of access, secret things. Everything that is worthy is secret.”

Secret Worthy Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Virtues

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Source: The Black Prince

“True politics is simply the drying of tears and the endless fight for freedom. Without freedom there is no art and no truth. I revere great artists and the men who say no to tyrants.”

Art Truth Politics Resistance Rebellion Iris Murdoch Freedom Of Speech The Black Prince Fighting For Freedom

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Source: The Black Prince

“I shall not attempt here to describe my marriage. Some impression of it will doubtless emerge. For the present story, its general nature rather than its detail is important. It was not a success. At first I saw her as a life-bringer. Then I saw her as a death-bringer. Some women are like that. There is a sort of energy which seems to reveal the world: then one day you find you are being devoured. Fellow victims will know what I mean. Possibly I am a natural bachelor.”

Humor Relationships Marriage Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Omission Bachelor

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Source: The Black Prince

“One must constantly meditate upon the absurdities of chance, a subject even more edifying than the subject of death.”

Humor Death Chance Iris Murdoch Morbid The Black Prince Pedantic Absurdities

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Source: The Black Prince

“Only art explains, and that cannot itself be explained.”

Art Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Inexpressible Explains

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Source: The Black Prince

“I have been on the whole a lucky man. And I would say that even now. Perhaps especially I would say it now.”

Lucky Iris Murdoch Looking Back The Black Prince Narrator

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Source: The Black Prince

“How little perhaps can words convey except in the hands of a genius.”

Writing Genius Words Writer Iris Murdoch The Black Prince

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Source: The Black Prince

“Let me sleep at last. I've had misery enough in my life. You said there was nowhere to go to. There is death to go to. I've had misery enough in my life.”

Sleep Depression Misery Desperate Iris Murdoch Suicidal Escape The Black Prince

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“What follows is ambiguous and sometimes tortuously told. Man's searchings and his strugglings are ambiguous and vowed to hidden ways. Those who live by that dark light will understand.”

Darkness Storytelling Narrative Iris Murdoch Ambiguous The Black Prince

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“Even as I write these words, which should be lucid and filled with glowing colour, I feel the very darkness of my own personality invading my pen. Only perhaps in the ink of this darkness can this writing properly be written? It is not really possible to write like an angel, though some of our near-gods by heaven-inspired trickery sometimes seem to do it.”

Writing Darkness Personality Writers Creative Process Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Craft

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

“There was a shadowy light, not exactly twilight, but an uncertain vivid yet hazy illumination, wherein people walked like spirits, bathed in light and not revealed.”

Light Description Iris Murdoch The Black Prince Atmospheric

Book:The Black Prince

Source: The Black Prince

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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