Iris Murdoch Quotes

How can one preach goodness and love to men without at the same time offering them an interpretation of the World that justifies this goodness and this love?

Philosophy, to be relevant, must offer us a wisdom to live by.

Morality is always derivative. It stems from one's worldview.

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.

Philosophy rests on a proposition that whatever is is right. Preaching begins by assuming that whatever is is wrong.

He who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.

I am not advocating a morality based on evolution.

We need an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally acceptable to those with faith and those without.

I doubt not, but from self-evident Propositions, by necessary Consequences, as incontestable as those in Mathematics, the measures of right and wrong might be made out.

But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

Morality comes from humanism and is stolen by religion for its own purposes.

I read these words which are the sum of all moral philosophy, and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists: When in doubt if an action is good or bad, refrain.

All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness, can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I believe the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics that is beyond religion.

On the threshold of the moral world we meet the idea of Freedom, 'one of the weightiest concepts man has ever formed,' once a dogma, in the course of time a hypothesis, now in the eyes of many a fiction, yet we cannot do without it, even although we may be firmly convinced that our acts are determined by laws that cannot be broken.

Morality must be the heart of our existence, if it is to be what it wants to be for us. The highest form of philosophy is ethics. Thus all philosophy begins with "I am." The highest statement of cognition must be an expression of that fact which is the means and ground for all cognition, namely, the goal of the I.

There is no true and abiding morality that is not founded in religion.

Philosophy is fundamentally about how you come to terms with living your life and trying to do it in a wise manner, and, for me, that means decently and compassionately and courageously and so forth.

At the core of every moral code there is a picture of human nature, a map of the universe, and a version of history. To human nature (of the sort conceived), in a universe (of the kind imagined), after a history (so understood), the rules of the code apply.

Irrespective of whether we are believers or agnostics, whether we believe in God or karma, moral ethics is a code which everyone is able to pursue.

The content of scientific theory itself offers no moral foundation for the personal conduct of life.

I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves. This ethical basis I call the ideal of the pigsty.

Morality must always precede and accompany religion, and yet religion is much more than morality.

Ethics is inescapable.

A great philosopher in the wrong is like a beacon on the reefs which says to seamen: steer clear of me.

No philosophy based on an incorrect view of the nature of man is likely to produce social good.