being homosexual doesn't determine a man's whole character any more than being heterosexual does. Iris Murdoch More Quotes by Iris Murdoch More Quotes From Iris Murdoch We can only learn to love by loving. Iris Murdoch deep-romantictrue-lovelove We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. Iris Murdoch taskslifereality There is no beyond, there is only here, the infinitely small, infinitely great and utterly demanding present. Iris Murdoch 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 responsibilityseainspirational 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 reallove-isart Every artist is an unhappy lover. And unhappy lovers want to tell their story. Iris Murdoch artistunhappystories The best thing about being God would be making the heads. Iris Murdoch best-thingswould-be Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. Iris Murdoch gratitudehappyhappiness 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 healingheartmen Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck. Iris Murdoch womenmarriagewriting Jealousy comes from self-love rather than from true love. Iris Murdoch dont-give-upjealousygiving-up But fantasy kills imagination, pornography is death to art. Iris Murdoch imaginationdeathart 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 marriagerelationshiplife 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 sunshinenatureflower 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 doedesireneeds Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out. Iris Murdoch shoesbootsitalian All art is the struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous. Iris Murdoch literaturestruggleart 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 essentialsfundamentalsculture Love is the perception of individuals. Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real. Iris Murdoch realinspirationallove Almost any tale of our doings is comic. We are bottomlessly comic to each other. Even the most adored and beloved person is comic to his lover. The novel is a comic form. Language is a comic form, and makes jokes in its sleep. God, if He existed, would laugh at His creation. Yet it is also the case that life is horrible, without metaphysical sense, wrecked by chance, pain and the close prospect of death. Out of this is born irony, our dangerous and necessary tool. Iris Murdoch painsleeplaughing
