Iris Murdoch, on her birthday

via https://www.flowmagazine.com/flow-magazine/as-seen-in-flow/the-philosopher-iris-murdoch.html

“We are anxiety-ridden animals. Our minds are continually active, fabricating an anxious, usually self-preoccupied, often falsifying veil which partially conceals the world. Our states of consciousness differ in quality, our fantasies and reveries are not trivial or unimportant, they are profoundly connected with our energies and our abilities to choose and act. And if quality of consciousness matters, then anything that alters consciousness in the direction of unselfishness, objectivity, and realism is to be connected to virtue.”