Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. Iris Murdoch More Quotes by Iris Murdoch More Quotes From Iris Murdoch We need a moral philosophy in which the concept of love, so rarely mentioned now by philosophers, can once again be made central. Iris Murdoch lovephilosophyneeds The cry of equality pulls everyone down. Iris Murdoch equalitycry For most of us, for almost all of us, truth can be attained, if at all, only in silence. It is in silence that the human spirit touches the divine. Iris Murdoch silencedivinespirit Art and psychoanalysis give shape and meaning to life and that is why we adore them, but life as it is lived has no shape and meaning. Iris Murdoch shapesgivingart A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia. Iris Murdoch importantcriticismrain A middling talent makes for a more serene life. Iris Murdoch serenetalent I think the novel is essentially a comic form (tragedy is for the theatre), not meaning by that full of jokes, but that it is about the absurd detail of human life, the way in which one cannot fully understand what is happening. Life is muddle and jumble and ends inconclusively, and when this is presented with great comic art the sorrows of human life can be truthfully conveyed; one is moved by the spectacle, and feels that something truthful has been told in a magic way. Iris Murdoch magicartthinking Only the very greatest art invigorates without consoling. Iris Murdoch consolingart Every man needs two women: a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph. Iris Murdoch womenhometwo Upon the demon-ridden pilgrimage of human life, what next I wonder. Iris Murdoch nextdemonwonder Time can divorce us from the reality of people, it can separate us from people and turn them into ghosts. Or rather it is we who turn them into ghosts or demons. Some kinds of fruitless preoccupations with the past can create such simulacra, and they can exercise power, like those heroes at Troy fighting for a phantom Helen. Iris Murdoch divorcefightinghero There is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly taken-for-granted relationship. Iris Murdoch marriagehappinessrelationship It is difficult in life to be good, and difficult in art to portray goodness. Perhaps we don't know much about goodness. Iris Murdoch difficultgoodnessart Dogs are very different from cats in that they can be images of human virtue. They are like us. Iris Murdoch catdifferentdog The entry of a child into any situation changes the whole situation. Iris Murdoch situationentrychildren We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness is the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason. Iris Murdoch most-amazinginwardsecret Real worship involves waiting. Iris Murdoch realfaithwaiting 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 our-lovegoldlove-is Music relates sound and time and so pictures the ultimate edges of human commmunications. Iris Murdoch relatehumanssound I have used the word "attention," which I borrow from Simone Weil, to express the idea of a just and loving gaze directed upon individual reality. I believe this to be the characteristic and proper mark of the active moral agent. Iris Murdoch believerealityideas
