Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self.

Quote by Iris Murdoch

Topics: Being Busy Quotes

Literature could be said to be a sort of disciplined technique for arousing certain emotions.

Literature could be said to be a sort of disciplined technique for arousing certain emotions.

Every man needs two women: a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph.

Every man needs two women: a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph.

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.

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

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

Only lies and evil come from letting people off.

Only lies and evil come from letting people off.

Moralistic is not moral. And as for truth - well, it's like brown - it's...

Moralistic is not moral. And as for truth - well, it's like brown - it's...

Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.

Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.

Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is.

Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is.

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

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

The absolute yearning of one human body for another particular body and its indifference to...

The absolute yearning of one human body for another particular body and its indifference to...

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

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

Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they...

Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they...

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

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

He was a sociologist; he had got into an intellectual muddle early on in life...

He was a sociologist; he had got into an intellectual muddle early on in life...

But fantasy kills imagination, pornography is death to art.

But fantasy kills imagination, pornography is death to art.

Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy...

Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy...

We shall be better prepared for the future if we see how terrible, how doomed...

We shall be better prepared for the future if we see how terrible, how doomed...

We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life...

We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life...

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the...

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the...

All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.

All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.