Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. In a closely beleaguered city every sentry is a potential traitor.
Graham GreeneRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects a feeling of resignation and a yearning for solitude after experiencing deep emotional pain.
In this quote, Graham Greene captures a profound sense of weariness stemming from past experiences of love and loss. The narrator, while sharing a moment with a friend, expresses a desire to be left in peace, overwhelmed by the emotional burden that love has inflicted upon him. It highlights the complexity of human emotions, especially when dealing with love and the impact it can have on one's spirit, leading to a state of introspective reflection and a longing for solitude.
Themes
LovePainSolitudeWearinessRegret
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about heartbreak, one might quote this to emphasize the exhaustion that can follow intense feelings of love.
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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