Humanity's legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences. At the very simplest, it can be: 'He/she was born, lived, died.' Probably that is the template of our stories - a beginning, middle, and end. This structure is in our minds.

~ Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing Humanity Beginning Legacy

When you're young you think that you're going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue.

~ Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing Think Lake You

For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying.

~ Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing Life Work Always

There's an unconscious bias in our society: girls are wonderful; boys are terrible. And to be a boy, or young man, growing up, having to listen to all this, it must be painful.

~ Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing Man Growing Up Listen