What a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someone’s company you love them.
Iris MurdochRead
Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's really a machine for making falsehoods. When we really speak the truth, words are insufficient. Almost everything except things like "pass the gravy" is a lie of a sort. And that being the case, I shall shut up. Oh, and... pass the gravy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Words often fail to accurately convey human emotions and truths.
This quote by Iris Murdoch reflects on the inadequacies of language in expressing genuine human feelings and truths. She suggests that while we attempt to articulate emotions, the very process of defining them with words can lead to misinterpretations and falsehoods, leaving us with a sense of futility in communication and a desire to retreat to simpler expressions.
Themes
LanguageTruthEmotionsCommunicationFeelings
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on the complexities of human experiences, you can cite this quote to emphasize the struggle of expressing deep emotions.
More from Iris Murdoch
All quotes →The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
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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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A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.
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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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