Iris Murdoch: Trending quotes

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Iris Murdoch: 122 quotes21 likes

“All art is the struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.”

The Black Prince (1973); 2003, p. 181.

“Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.”

The Nice and the Good (1968), ch. 14, p. 127.
Murdoch attributed this opinion to her character Kate Gray. It was not her own.

“The novel, the novel proper that is, is about people's treatment of each other, and so it is about human values.”

Iris Murdoch Sartre: Romantic Rationalist

Source: Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953), Ch. 10, p. 138

“There is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly taken-for-granted relationship.”

Iris Murdoch book A Severed Head

A Severed Head (1961); 1976, p. 181.

“We know that the real lesson to be taught is that the human person is precious and unique; but we seem unable to set it forth except in terms of ideology and abstraction.”

Iris Murdoch Sartre: Romantic Rationalist

Source: Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953), Ch. 10, p. 148 (the concluding sentence of the book)

“Only lies and evil come from letting people off.”

Iris Murdoch book A Severed Head

A Severed Head (1961); 1976, p. 61.

“The notion that one will not survive a particular catastrophe is, in general terms, a comfort since it is equivalent to abolishing the catastrophe.”

Iris Murdoch book The Message to the Planet

The Message to the Planet (1989) p. 532.

“Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.”

Iris Murdoch

"Art and Eros: A Dialogue about Art", Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues (1986).

“He felt neither guilt nor distress at the pleasure with which he was now filled by the proximity of this young creature, and when he discovered in himself even physical symptoms of his inclination he did not take fright, but continued cheerfully and serenely to see Nick whenever the ordinary run of his duties suggested it, congratulating himself upon the newly achieved solidity and rational calm of his spiritual life.”

Iris Murdoch book The Bell

The Bell (1958) p. 91

“I see myself as Rhoda, not Mary Tyler Moore.”

Iris Murdoch

Not Iris Murdoch, but the actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell. See George Mair Rosie O'Donnell: Her True Story (1997) p. 81.
Misattributed

“I daresay anything can be made holy by being sincerely worshipped.”

Iris Murdoch book The Message to the Planet

The Message to the Planet (1989) p. 322.

“The role of philosophy might be said to be to extend and deepen the self-awareness of mankind.”

Iris Murdoch Sartre: Romantic Rationalist

Source: Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953), Ch. 9, p. 137

“All metaphysical theories are inconclusively vulnerable to positivist attack.”

Iris Murdoch Sartre: Romantic Rationalist

Source: Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953), Ch. 9, p. 127

“Perhaps misguided moral passion is better than confused indifference.”

Iris Murdoch book The Book and the Brotherhood

The Book and the Brotherhood (1987) p. 248.

“A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.”

Iris Murdoch

Quoted in The Times (6 July 1989).

“The only satisfied rationalists today are blinkered scientists or Marxists.”

Iris Murdoch Sartre: Romantic Rationalist

Source: Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953), Ch. 7, p. 113

“The cry of equality pulls everyone down.”

Iris Murdoch

Quoted in The Observer September 13, 1987.

“Serious reflexion about one's own character will often induce a curious sense of emptiness; and if one knows another person well, one may sometimes intuit a similar void in him. (This is one of the strange privileges of friendship.)”

Iris Murdoch Sartre: Romantic Rationalist

Source: Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953), Ch. 8, p. 119

“Bereavement is a darkness impenetrable to the imagination of the unbereaved.”

Iris Murdoch book The Sacred and Profane Love Machine

The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974) p. 37.

“To eat, teeth must meet.”

Iris Murdoch book The Sacred and Profane Love Machine

The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974), p. 66.