One doesn't have to get anywhere in a marriage. It's not a public conveyance.

- Iris Murdoch

There is no beyond, there is only here, the infinitely small, infinitely great and utterly demanding present.

- Iris Murdoch

We can only learn to love by loving.

- Iris Murdoch

Language is a machine for making falsehoods.

- Iris Murdoch

We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.

- Iris Murdoch

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.

- Iris Murdoch

One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats, and if some of these can be inexpensive and quickly procured so much the better.

- Iris Murdoch

Real misery cuts off all paths to itself.

- Iris Murdoch

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