Iris Murdoch Quotes about Sleep

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Not to have been born is undoubtedly best, but sound sleep is second best.

Not to have been born is undoubtedly best, but sound sleep is second best.

Iris Murdoch

Sleep, Sound, Second Best

There is a gulf fixed between those who can sleep and those who cannot. It is one of the greatest divisions of the human race.

Iris Murdoch

Sleep, Race, Division

Iris Murdoch (2002). “Nuns and Soldiers”, p.35, Penguin

Almost any tale of our doings is comic. We are bottomlessly comic to each other. Even the most adored and beloved person is comic to his lover. The novel is a comic form. Language is a comic form, and makes jokes in its sleep. God, if He existed, would laugh at His creation. Yet it is also the case that life is horrible, without metaphysical sense, wrecked by chance, pain and the close prospect of death. Out of this is born irony, our dangerous and necessary tool.

Iris Murdoch

Pain, Sleep, Laughing

Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.80, Penguin