What a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someone’s company you love them.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The bicycle represents a simple, pure, and civilized means of transportation compared to other increasingly complex and problematic forms of travel.
This quote by Iris Murdoch suggests that the bicycle epitomizes a form of transport that is straightforward, unencumbered by the complications and stresses associated with modern vehicles. In a world where other means of transport often become 'nightmarish' due to congestion, pollution, and technological dependence, the bicycle stands out as a symbol of purity and simplicity, offering a more humane and thoughtful way to move about.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a cycling event to emphasize the positive aspects of biking.
More from Iris Murdoch
All quotes →Man's creative struggle, his search for wisdom and truth, is a love story.
All art deals with the absurd and aims at the simple. Good art speaks truth, indeed is truth, perhaps the only truth.
A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.
Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they hear is a continuous scream.
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.
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