“Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's really a machine for making falsehoods. When we really speak the truth, words are insufficient. Almost everything except things like "pass the gravy" is a lie of a sort. And that being the case, I shall shut up. Oh, and... pass the gravy.”
“Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's really a machine for making falsehoods. When we really speak the truth, words are insufficient. Almost everything except things like "pass the gravy" is a lie of a sort. And that being the case, I shall shut up. Oh, and... pass the gravy.”
Iris Murdoch
“I am looking out of my window in an anxious and resentful state of mind, oblivious to my surroundings, brooding perhaps on some damage done to my prestige. Then suddenly I observe a hovering kestrel. In a moment everything is altered. The brooding self with its hurt vanity has disappeared. There is nothing now but kestrel. And when I return to thinking of the other matter it seems less important”
Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good“Every man needs two women: a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph.”
Iris Murdoch“There is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly taken-for-granted relationship.”
Iris Murdoch“Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.”
Iris Murdoch“All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.”
Iris Murdoch“In almost every marriage there is a selfish and an unselfish partner. A pattern is set up and soon becomes inflexible, of one person always making the demands and one person always giving way.”
Iris Murdoch“One doesn't have to get anywhere in a marriage. It's not a public conveyance.”
Iris Murdoch“The priesthood is a marriage. People often start by falling in love, and they go on for years without realizing that love must change into some other love which is so unlike it that it can hardly be recognized as love at all.”
Iris Murdoch“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.”
Iris Murdoch“Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self.”
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