What a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someoneβs company you love them.
Iris MurdochRead
Possibly, more people kill themselves and others out of hurt vanity than out of envy, jealousy, malice or desire for revenge.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that many acts of violence and self-harm stem from vanity rather than negative emotions like jealousy or malice.
Iris Murdoch highlights the destructive power of vanity, implying that our self-importance and obsession with how we are perceived can lead to tragic outcomes, including self-harm and harm to others. It challenges the common belief that negative emotions are the primary drivers of such actions and encourages a deeper reflection on the impact of our ego and self-image.
In practice
In a discussion about mental health, this quote can emphasize the importance of understanding the root causes of self-destructive behavior.
What a test that is: more than devotion, admiration, passion. If you long and long for someoneβs 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.
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.
In such a fearful world, we need a fearless church
It might be lonelier Without the Loneliness - Iβm so accustomed to my Fate - Perhaps the Other - Peace - Would interrupt the Dark - And crowd the little Room - Too scant - by Cubits - to contain The Sacrament - of Him - I am not used to Hope - It might intrude upon - Its sweet parade - blaspheme the place - Ordained to Suffering - It might be easier To fail - with Land in Sight - Than gain - My Blue Peninsula - To perish - of Delight -
Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.
The truth of an upright man must be accepted on his own terms. Moreover, since natures vary, we must agree that all the beauties of human excellence may be fostered by faiths that we do not share.
She was incomprehensible, for, in her, soul and spirit were one - the beauty of her body was the essence of her soul. She was that unity sought for by philosophers through many centuries. In this outdoor waiting room of winds and stars she had been sitting for a hundred years, at peace in the contemplation of herself.
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