Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. In a closely beleaguered city every sentry is a potential traitor.
Graham GreeneRead
I have never understood why people who can swallow the enormous improbability of a personal God boggle at a personal Devil.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the inconsistency in belief about the divine while accepting the existence of evil.
Graham Greene's quote highlights a paradox in human belief systems: it critiques the tendency of individuals to readily accept the possibility of a benevolent, personal God while simultaneously struggling to comprehend the existence of a malevolent force, or Devil. This reflection emphasizes the complexities of faith, morality, and the human understanding of good and evil, suggesting that both the divine and the diabolical should be equally considered in our worldview.
Themes
BeliefGodDevilFaithGoodEvil
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about moral philosophy, one might use this quote to illustrate the paradox of belief.
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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