1,162 Quotes by Iris Murdoch

I am out of the saga, he thought. He had a heavy sense of being left in total isolation; everyone had withdrawn from him and the person who could most have helped him was pre-empted by another.

He felt sad, sad.

Yet it was not that a rapture or a glory which had once shone around her had passed away from the world. The rapture and the glory whose hauntings she suffered had never manifested themselves in her life at all.

She thought sadly, gaiety and laughter are not in my destiny.

Then she thought, is this really all I have to look forward to, is this what I have to comfort myself with?

How can one discover what he feels?""I thought he might perhaps behave — quite differently with you?""No, no. We seem to know each other well but I think that's just because I parade my feelings. He's affectionate, detached, passive, absolutely passive.""He's never told you about that place?""He's never talked about himself at all.

Settle down! she thought. Yes, settle down into dreariness and quietness and forgetfulness and boredom.

This thought was so heavy with despair that she almost began to cry again.

Theo wanted to call him back. But then he thought, oh let him go, there's no mending a fruitless love, it just has to be endured.