Iris Murdoch

In philosophy if you aren't moving at a snail's pace you aren't moving at all.

Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating!

The cry of equality pulls everyone down.

I think being a woman is like being Irish. Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same.

I daresay anything can be made holy by being sincerely worshipped.

Anything that consoles is fake.

Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.

Only lies and evil come from letting people off.

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

Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.

In almost every marriage there is a selfish and an unselfish partner. A pattern is set up and soon becomes inflexible, of one person always making the demands and one person always giving way.

No love is entirely without worth, even when the frivolous calls to the frivolous and the base to the base.