I hate solitude but I am afraid of intimacy. The substance of my life is a private conversation with myself and to turn it into a dialogue would be equivalent to self-destruction. The company I need is the company which a pub or a cafe will provide. I have never wanted a communion of souls.
Iris Murdochemotions 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 MurdochEducation doesnโt make you happy. Nor does freedom. We donโt become happy just because weโre free โ if we are. Or because weโve been educated โ if we have. But because education may be the means by which we realize we are happy. It opens our eyes, our ears, tells us where delights are lurking, convinces us that there is only one freedom of any importance whatsoever, that of the mind, and gives us the assurance โ the confidence โ to walk the path our mind, our educated mind, offers.
Iris MurdochWhat a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someoneโs company you love them.
Iris MurdochIt is in the capacity to love, that is to SEE, that the liberation of the soul from fantasy consists. The freedom which is a proper human goal is the freedom from fantasy, that is the realism of compassion. What I have called fantasy, the proliferation of blinding self-centered aims and images, is itself a powerful system of energy, and most of what is often called 'will' or 'willing' belongs to this system. What counteracts the system is attention to reality inspired by, consisting of, love.
Iris Murdoch