the-green-knight

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
07cfcf4	It was her birthday. She thought, I am always unhappy on this day.	the-green-knight iris-murdoch unhappy birthday	Iris Murdoch
324b71e	"I feel I'm at the end of something -- everything is going to be different -- and terrible." "That doesn't sound like you, you ride every wave." "There is one that will drown me."	metaphor the-end the-green-knight iris-murdoch giving-up dialogue resilience	Iris Murdoch
8639c6b	One might have all sorts of reasons for avoiding people. It's none of our business.	reclusive the-green-knight iris-murdoch avoidance misanthropic	Iris Murdoch
9aa16a7	What greater torment than to see that light, and then to see it eternally withdrawn?	light the-green-knight withdrawal torment	Iris Murdoch
2e6cc27	Eccentrics with unseeing eyes glided through, savouring amid so much society their own particular loneliness and private sins and sorrows.	loneliness eccentrics the-green-knight iris-murdoch sins sorrows society	Iris Murdoch
f2e104d	Don't tease me. Everything wounds me now except perfect kindness.	kindness the-green-knight iris-murdoch teasing sensitive	Iris Murdoch
0882153	"In a century or two this planet will have been destroyed by external cosmic forces or by the senseless activity of the human race. Human life is a freak phenomenon, soon to be blotted out. That is a consoling thought. Meanwhile we are surrounded by strange invisible entities, possibly your angels." "I hope so." "Ah, you think they are good, they be good, there is no good, the tendency to evil is overwhelming. One has only to think of the horrors of sex, its violence, its cruelty, its filthy vulgarity, its descent into bestial degradation. You had better go and dream in your monastery." "Would you come and visit me there?" "Of course not. I do not visit. Only, unfortunately, am sometimes visited." "You don't want to discuss -- you know -- what happened? My priest said -- " "No." "I care about how you are, I love you." "You still fail to realise how this sort of talk sickens me. Now please go. This will do for a welcome home scene. Tell them not to come. I desire to be left alone."	relationship humor misanthrope recluse the-green-knight iris-murdoch end-of-the-world pessimistic	Iris Murdoch
6388a0b	We shall meet, but as strangers. It is the end of an era. A whole part of my life is torn away.	the-end-of-an-era the-green-knight iris-murdoch parting strangers separation sad	Iris Murdoch
25e3de8	How easily one is hurt. Or is it only I who am so stupidly vulnerable.	the-green-knight iris-murdoch sensitive vulnerable	Iris Murdoch
66bc4be	Beyond her declaration of love she could not see. But as she rehearsed the intensity of her passion she thought that he , when the time came, . The desire to, at the right time, him became, as the years moved forward toward that time, increasingly painful, like a poisoned wound that must heal itself by breaking open. She thought in anguish of the times, the recent times, when she could have told him, and had been afraid to, and had clumsily withdrawn, when she could have attracted him and drawn his attention to her. When she had watched over him when he was sleeping in the sedan-chair and could have wakened him with a kiss. If only she had , then she could more easily have borne his not preferring her. He was ready to fall in love -- and if he had -- he must have loved her -- if he had known how much she loved him. The pain of this loss burnt her in every waking moment, that awful 'if only'. She had lost him, and lost him through her own fault. There were no more pleasures now in life.	loss suffering if-only missed-chance missed-opportunity the-green-knight iris-murdoch unspoken unrequited-love	Iris Murdoch
d2a31ee	You see, I'm not mad, I suffer from depression. It's not like ordinary misery. It's like dying of boredom. It's .	madness depression the-green-knight iris-murdoch misery	Iris Murdoch
2061f9a	He said, 'Forgive me for being a liar and a fool and an utterly worthless man.' Louise replied, 'I love you.' He took her in his arms for a moment and they held each other with closed eyes.	tender embrace declaration-of-love the-green-knight iris-murdoch unconditional-love confession dialogue	Iris Murdoch
38b41d8	He suffers terribly all the time. He lives in fire.	metaphor suffering endless-suffering relentless the-green-knight iris-murdoch torture	Iris Murdoch
0886c53	I have no close friends, that is, no friends.	friends the-green-knight iris-murdoch isolated friendless lonely	Iris Murdoch
267eb88	So was she on the side of dragons and indifferent to the fate of princesses?	fairy-tales princesses tropes the-green-knight iris-murdoch	Iris Murdoch
6f2422b	Our planet is a freak which we shall destroy by our own wicked senseless activities in the next century. Our history will very soon come to an end. Now that God is dead, we are at last presented with the truth, yes, the truth remains, but it is on a short lead. Anyway, we are nothing and it matters not what we do.	the-green-knight iris-murdoch end-of-the-world pessimistic meaningless nihilism doomsday	Iris Murdoch
0e5eab1	Bellamy found simply a task of amazing difficulty. It was as if ordinary human life were a mobile machine full of holes, crannies, spaces, apertures, fissures, cavities, lairs, into one of which Bellamy was required to (and indeed desired to) fit himself. The machine moved slowly, resembling a train, or sometimes a merry-go-round. But as soon as Bellamy got on (or got in), the machine would soon eject him, sending him spinning back to a where he was once more forced to be a . Perhaps, that was in some mysterious sense his place, his . But Bellamy did not want to be a spectator, nor could he (having no money of his own) afford to be one. Moreover he had never really mastered the art, apparently so simple for others, of . His failure to find a metier, to find a task which was task, caused him continuous anxiety, nor did it occur to him to emulate the majority of mankind who positively resigned themselves, seeing no alternative, to alien and unsatisfying work. At one time he had suffered from depression, and was nearer to despair than his friends realised.	depression work left-out place-in-the-world the-green-knight iris-murdoch spectator despair	Iris Murdoch
36261b7	I took him for a kind of buffoon. Now I see he is a devil.	first-impression underestimated the-green-knight iris-murdoch enemy devil	Iris Murdoch
f0bf99e	She felt intense disappointment, even a kind of guilt, as if she had missed something, perhaps forever. He had been there, she could have spoken to him. Could she call out now, cry his name? It was impossible.	missed-chances finality missed-opportunity the-green-knight iris-murdoch guilt sad	Iris Murdoch
209a32c	Nothing will bring me peace except revenge.	revenge the-green-knight peace	Iris Murdoch

It was her birthday. She thought, I am always unhappy on this day.

the-green-knight iris-murdoch unhappy birthday

Iris Murdoch

324b71e

"I feel I'm at the end of something -- everything is going to be different -- and terrible." "That doesn't sound like you, you ride every wave." "There is one that will drown me."

metaphor the-end the-green-knight iris-murdoch giving-up dialogue resilience

Iris Murdoch

8639c6b

One might have all sorts of reasons for avoiding people. It's none of our business.

reclusive the-green-knight iris-murdoch avoidance misanthropic

Iris Murdoch

9aa16a7

What greater torment than to see that light, and then to see it eternally withdrawn?

light the-green-knight withdrawal torment

Iris Murdoch

2e6cc27

Eccentrics with unseeing eyes glided through, savouring amid so much society their own particular loneliness and private sins and sorrows.

loneliness eccentrics the-green-knight iris-murdoch sins sorrows society

Iris Murdoch

f2e104d

Don't tease me. Everything wounds me now except perfect kindness.

kindness the-green-knight iris-murdoch teasing sensitive

Iris Murdoch

0882153

"In a century or two this planet will have been destroyed by external cosmic forces or by the senseless activity of the human race. Human life is a freak phenomenon, soon to be blotted out. That is a consoling thought. Meanwhile we are surrounded by strange invisible entities, possibly your angels." "I hope so." "Ah, you think they are good, they be good, there is no good, the tendency to evil is overwhelming. One has only to think of the horrors of sex, its violence, its cruelty, its filthy vulgarity, its descent into bestial degradation. You had better go and dream in your monastery." "Would you come and visit me there?" "Of course not. I do not visit. Only, unfortunately, am sometimes visited." "You don't want to discuss -- you know -- what happened? My priest said -- " "No." "I care about how you are, I love you." "You still fail to realise how this sort of talk sickens me. Now please go. This will do for a welcome home scene. Tell them not to come. I desire to be left alone."

relationship humor misanthrope recluse the-green-knight iris-murdoch end-of-the-world pessimistic

Iris Murdoch

6388a0b

We shall meet, but as strangers. It is the end of an era. A whole part of my life is torn away.

the-end-of-an-era the-green-knight iris-murdoch parting strangers separation sad

Iris Murdoch

25e3de8

How easily one is hurt. Or is it only I who am so stupidly vulnerable.

the-green-knight iris-murdoch sensitive vulnerable

Iris Murdoch

66bc4be

Beyond her declaration of love she could not see. But as she rehearsed the intensity of her passion she thought that he , when the time came, . The desire to, at the right time, him became, as the years moved forward toward that time, increasingly painful, like a poisoned wound that must heal itself by breaking open. She thought in anguish of the times, the recent times, when she could have told him, and had been afraid to, and had clumsily withdrawn, when she could have attracted him and drawn his attention to her. When she had watched over him when he was sleeping in the sedan-chair and could have wakened him with a kiss. If only she had , then she could more easily have borne his not preferring her. He was ready to fall in love -- and if he had -- he must have loved her -- if he had known how much she loved him. The pain of this loss burnt her in every waking moment, that awful 'if only'. She had lost him, and lost him through her own fault. There were no more pleasures now in life.

loss suffering if-only missed-chance missed-opportunity the-green-knight iris-murdoch unspoken unrequited-love

Iris Murdoch

d2a31ee

You see, I'm not mad, I suffer from depression. It's not like ordinary misery. It's like dying of boredom. It's .

madness depression the-green-knight iris-murdoch misery

Iris Murdoch

2061f9a

He said, 'Forgive me for being a liar and a fool and an utterly worthless man.' Louise replied, 'I love you.' He took her in his arms for a moment and they held each other with closed eyes.

tender embrace declaration-of-love the-green-knight iris-murdoch unconditional-love confession dialogue

Iris Murdoch

38b41d8

He suffers terribly all the time. He lives in fire.

metaphor suffering endless-suffering relentless the-green-knight iris-murdoch torture

Iris Murdoch

0886c53

I have no close friends, that is, no friends.

friends the-green-knight iris-murdoch isolated friendless lonely

Iris Murdoch

267eb88

So was she on the side of dragons and indifferent to the fate of princesses?

fairy-tales princesses tropes the-green-knight iris-murdoch

Iris Murdoch

6f2422b

Our planet is a freak which we shall destroy by our own wicked senseless activities in the next century. Our history will very soon come to an end. Now that God is dead, we are at last presented with the truth, yes, the truth remains, but it is on a short lead. Anyway, we are nothing and it matters not what we do.

the-green-knight iris-murdoch end-of-the-world pessimistic meaningless nihilism doomsday

Iris Murdoch

0e5eab1

Bellamy found simply a task of amazing difficulty. It was as if ordinary human life were a mobile machine full of holes, crannies, spaces, apertures, fissures, cavities, lairs, into one of which Bellamy was required to (and indeed desired to) fit himself. The machine moved slowly, resembling a train, or sometimes a merry-go-round. But as soon as Bellamy got on (or got in), the machine would soon eject him, sending him spinning back to a where he was once more forced to be a . Perhaps, that was in some mysterious sense his place, his . But Bellamy did not want to be a spectator, nor could he (having no money of his own) afford to be one. Moreover he had never really mastered the art, apparently so simple for others, of . His failure to find a metier, to find a task which was task, caused him continuous anxiety, nor did it occur to him to emulate the majority of mankind who positively resigned themselves, seeing no alternative, to alien and unsatisfying work. At one time he had suffered from depression, and was nearer to despair than his friends realised.

depression work left-out place-in-the-world the-green-knight iris-murdoch spectator despair

Iris Murdoch

36261b7

I took him for a kind of buffoon. Now I see he is a devil.

first-impression underestimated the-green-knight iris-murdoch enemy devil

Iris Murdoch

f0bf99e

She felt intense disappointment, even a kind of guilt, as if she had missed something, perhaps forever. He had been there, she could have spoken to him. Could she call out now, cry his name? It was impossible.

missed-chances finality missed-opportunity the-green-knight iris-murdoch guilt sad

Iris Murdoch

209a32c

Nothing will bring me peace except revenge.

revenge the-green-knight peace

Iris Murdoch