Quote

A middling talent makes for a more serene life.

Iris Murdoch

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Iris Murdoch
Age: 79 †
Born: 1919
Born: July 15
Died: 1999
Died: February 8
Author
Biographer
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Professor
Prosaist
Writer
Dublin city
Jean Iris Murdoch
Dame Iris Murdoch
Talent
Makes
Life
Middling
Serene

More quotes by Iris Murdoch

Image
Probably no adult misery can be compared with a child's despair.
Iris Murdoch
Image
The talk of lovers who have just declared their love is one of life's most sweet delights. Each vies with the other in humility, in amazement at being so valued. The past is searched for the first signs and each one is in haste to declare all that he is so that no part of his being escapes the hallowing touch.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Jealousy comes from self-love rather than from true love.
Iris Murdoch
Image
A letter is a barrier, a reprieve, a charm against the world, an almost infallible method of acting at a distance.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Language is a machine for making falsehoods.
Iris Murdoch
Image
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.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Remember that the secret of all learning is patience and that curiosity is not the same thing as a thirst for knowledge.
Iris Murdoch
Image
We must live by the light of our own self-satisfaction, through that secret vital busy inwardness which is even more remarkable than our reason.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they hear is a continuous scream.
Iris Murdoch
Image
We shall be better prepared for the future if we see how terrible, how doomed the present is.
Iris Murdoch
Image
It was like hunting fish with an underwater gun, a sport which he had once been foolish enough to try. At one moment there is the fish - graceful, mysterious, desirable and free - and the next moment there is nothing but struggling and blood and confusion.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Oh the piercing sadness of life in the midst of its ordinariness!
Iris Murdoch
Image
We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness is the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason.
Iris Murdoch
Image
A death is the most terrible of facts.
Iris Murdoch
Image
The most interesting things are always happening behind one.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Human affairs are not serious, but they have to be taken seriously.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Not to have been born is undoubtedly best, but sound sleep is second best.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Daytime sleep is a cursed slumber from which one wakes in despair.
Iris Murdoch
Image
Every man needs two women: a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph.
Iris Murdoch