What a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someone’s company you love them.
Iris MurdochRead
A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The insignificance of bad reviews compared to the vastness of life and nature's phenomena.
In this quote, Iris Murdoch emphasizes the trivial nature of negative opinions or feedback, suggesting that they hold minimal weight compared to the grand, indifferent occurrences in the universe, such as the weather in a faraway land like Patagonia. This perspective encourages individuals to focus less on criticism and more on what truly matters in life.
Themes
Bad ReviewPatagoniaPerspectiveTrivialNature
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech aimed at young entrepreneurs, one might say, 'Remember, a bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.'
More from Iris Murdoch
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Man's creative struggle, his search for wisdom and truth, is a love story.
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All art deals with the absurd and aims at the simple. Good art speaks truth, indeed is truth, perhaps the only truth.
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Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they hear is a continuous scream.
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For most of us, for almost all of us, truth can be attained, if at all, only in silence. It is in silence that the human spirit touches the divine.
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