Iris Murdoch - Tumblr Posts
“I feel full of the mystery of life at the moment. (Odd how things sometimes seem tinkling and empty and then full, full.) An overwhelming sensation that almost makes me speechless.”
— Iris Murdoch, from a letter to Wallace Robson written c. December 1951 (via violentwavesofemotion)
"Thus people can be light sources, without ever knowing, for years in the lives of others, while their own lives take different and hidden courses."
Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
"This then was love, to look and look until one exists no more, this was the love which was the same as death."
Iris Murdoch, The Unicorn
“Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.”
— Iris Murdoch, Existentialists and Mystics Writings on Philosophy and Literature
“The problem was the same, only the light was different.”
— Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
The past refused to come back, as it did in dreams, to be remade.
The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch
“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, A Fairly Honourable Defeat
Simon: Axel!
Axel: Yes.
Simon: The way your hair grows down the back of your neck drives me completely and absolutely crazy.
Axel: Good show.
Simon: Will you love me forever?
Axel: Haven't the faintest idea.
Simon: I'll love you forever.
Axel: Decent of you.
- A Fairly Honourable Defeat
“Your strange face haunts me.”
— Iris Murdoch, from a letter to Wallace Robson written c. April 1952
“The desire to tell love is a natural ingredient of love itself; love feels it is a benefit, a blessing, a gift that must be given.”
— Iris Murdoch, “The Philosopher’s Pupil”
He said, “Well, if you don't want an admirer, what do you want?”
“I want a black cat with white paws!” Hattie said.
— Iris Murdoch, “The Philosopher's Pupil”
“The men were apparently called Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern, or else Rainborough had misheard.”
— Iris Murdoch, “The Flight from the Enchanter”
“Emotions really exist at the bottom of the personality or at the top. In the middle they are acted. This is why all the world is a stage”
— Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea