Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. In a closely beleaguered city every sentry is a potential traitor.
Graham GreeneRead
Grief and disappointment are like hate: they make men ugly with self-pity and bitterness. And how selfish they make us too.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Grief and disappointment can lead to self-pity and bitterness, resulting in a negative impact on one's character.
Graham Greene's quote suggests that feelings of grief and disappointment can transform individuals by fostering negative emotions such as self-pity and bitterness. These emotions not only affect interpersonal relationships but also lead to a form of selfishness, as one becomes consumed by their own suffering rather than considering the feelings of others.
Themes
GriefDisappointmentSelf-PityBitternessSelfishness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be a reminder during a speech about the importance of overcoming challenges and negativity.
More from Graham Greene
All quotes →It seemed to Scobie that life was immeasurably long. Couldn’t the test of man have been carried out in fewer years? Couldn’t we have committed our first major sin at seven, have ruined ourselves for love or hate at ten, have clutched at redemption on a fifteen-year-old deathbed?
Graham GreeneRead
God is love. I don't say the heart doesn't feel a taste of it, but what a taste. The smallest glass of love mixed with a pint pot of ditch-water. We wouldn't recognize that love. It might even look like hate. It would be enough to scare us - God's love.
Graham GreeneRead
Of two hearts one is always warm and one is always cold: the cold heart is more precious than diamonds: the warm heart has no value and is thrown away.
Graham GreeneRead
Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.
Graham GreeneRead
Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.
Graham GreeneRead
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