We'd forgive most things if we knew the facts. Graham Greene More Quotes by Graham Greene More Quotes From Graham Greene Grief and disappointment are like hate: they make men ugly with self-pity and bitterness. And how selfish they make us too. Graham Greene selfishhatedisappointment What an unbearable creature he must have been in those days--and yet in those days he had been comparatively innocent. That was another mystery: it sometimes seemed to him that venial sins--impatience, an unimportant lie, pride, a neglected opportunity--cut you off from grace more completely than the worst sins of all. Then, in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone; now in his corruption he had learnt. Graham Greene cuttingpridelying From childhood I had never believed in permanence, and yet I had longed for it. Always I was afraid of losing happiness. This month, next year...death was the only absolute value in my world. Lose life and one would lose nothing again forever. Graham Greene childhoodforeveryears There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives. Graham Greene return The economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that might perhaps serve its turn. Graham Greene novelistsliteraturewriting Death never mattered at those times - in the early days I even used to pray for it: the shattering annihilation that would prevent for ever the getting up, the putting on of clothes, the wathchign her torch trail across to the opposite side of the common like the tail-light of a low car driving away. Graham Greene clotheslightopposites One forgets so quickly one's own youth. Graham Greene youthforget I wrote at the start that this was a record of hate, and walking there beside Henry towards the evening glass of beer, I found the one prayer that seemed to serve the winter mood: O God, You've done enough, You've robbed me of enough, I'm too tired and old to learn to love, leave me alone forever. Graham Greene tiredhateprayer Never presume yours is a better morality. Graham Greene morality They haven't left us much to believe, have they? — even disbelief. I can't believe in anything bigger than a home, or anything vaguer than a human being. Graham Greene biggerhomebelieve Like some wines our love could neither mature nor travel. Graham Greene winebreakupbreak-up I envied those who could believe in a God and I distrusted them. I felt they were keeping their courage up with a fable of the changeless and the permanent. Death was far more certain than God, and with death there would be no longer the possibility of love dying. Graham Greene dyinglovebelieve I could never have been a pacifist. To kill a man was surely to grant him an immeasurable benefit. Oh yes, people always, everywhere, loved their enemies. It was their friends they preserved for pain and vacuity. Graham Greene painmenpeople So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one's days. Graham Greene superficialitydependswriting She had lost all our memories for ever, and it was as though by dying she had robbed me of part of myself. I was losing my individuality. It was the first stage of my own death, the memories dropping off like gangrened limbs. Graham Greene individualitydyingmemories You cannot control what you love--you watch it driving recklessly towards the broken bridge, the torn-up track, the horror of seventy years ahead. Graham Greene bridgeslove-youyears Oh, she doesn't belong to anybody now,' he said, and suddenly I saw her for what she was - a piece of refuse waiting to be cleared away: if you needed a bit of hair you could take it, or trim her nails if nail trimmings had value to you. Like a saint's her bones could be divided up - if anybody required them. She was going to be burnt soon, so why shouldn't everybody have what he wanted first? What a fool I had been during three years to imagine that in any way I had possessed her. We are all possessed by nobody, not even by ourselves. Graham Greene waitinghairyears My passion for Sarah had killed simple lust forever. Never again would I be able to enjoy a woman without love. Graham Greene passionsimpleforever You cannot love without intuition. Graham Greene instinctintuition Beauty is like success: we can't love it for long. Graham Greene long
