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 MURDOCHWe need a moral philosophy which can speak significantly of Freud and Marx and out of which aesthetic and political views can be generated. We need a moral philosophy in which the concept of love, so rarely mentioned now, can once again be made central.
More Iris Murdoch Quotes
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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.
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I took a deep breath, however, and followed my rule of never speaking frankly to women in moments of emotion. No good ever comes of this.
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Coffee, unless it is very good and made by somebody else, is pretty intolerable at any time.
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We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality says Iris Murdoch. But given the state of the world, is it wise?
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What a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someone’s company you love them.
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Every artist is an unhappy lover. And unhappy lovers want to tell their story.
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Every persisting marriage is based on fear’, said Peregrine. ‘Fear is fundamental, you dig down in human nature and what’s at the bottom? Mean spiteful cruel self-regarding fear, whether it makes you to put the foot in it or whether it makes you to cower.
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How huge it is, how empty, this great space for which I have been longing all my life. Still no letters.
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An experience is richest not talked of.
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Let us not waste love, it is rare enough.
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Guilt keeps people imprisoned in themselves.
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Hegel says that Truth is a great word and the thing is greater still. With Dave we never seemed to get past the word.
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Art and psychoanalisis give shape and meaning to life and that’s why we adore them. However, life as it is lived has no shape nor meaning, and that’s what I am experiencing right now.
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Bereavement is a darkness impenetrable to the imagination of the unbereaved.
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I just enjoy translating, it’s like opening one’s mouth and hearing someone else’s voice emerge.
IRIS MURDOCH