The role of philosophy might be said to be to extend and deepen the self-awareness of mankind. — Iris Murdoch

The novel, the novel proper that is, is about people's treatment of each other, and so it is about human values.

Serious reflexion about one's own character will often induce a curious sense of emptiness; and if one knows another person well, one may sometimes intuit a similar void in him. (This is one of the strange privileges of friendship.)

The only satisfied rationalists today are blinkered scientists or Marxists.