Graham Greene: Quotes about life

Graham Greene was English writer, playwright and literary critic. Explore interesting quotes on life.
Graham Greene: 328 quotes35 likes

“Life was a series of complicated tactical exercises …”

Graham Greene book Brighton Rock

Brighton Rock (1938)

“It is impossible to go through life without trust: that is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Bk. 1, ch. 3, sct. 2
Source: The Ministry of Fear (1943)

“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 book The Quiet American

Source: The Quiet American

“He gave her a bright fake smile; so much of life was a putting off of unhappiness for another time. Nothing was ever lost by delay. He had a dim idea that perhaps if one delayed long enough, things were taken out of one's hands altogether by death.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

“I suppose the love of life which periodically deserts most men was returning: like sexual desire, it moves in cycles.”

Graham Greene book The Lawless Roads

The Lawless Roads (1939)

“…the Boy sat silent. It was he this time who was being warned: life held the vitriol bottle and warned him: I'll spoil your looks.”

Graham Greene book Brighton Rock

Brighton Rock (1938)

“At the end of what is called the "sexual life" the only love which has lasted is the love which has everything, every disappointment, every failure and every betrayal, which has accepted even the sad fact that in the end there is no desire so deep as the simple desire for companionship.”

Graham Greene book May We Borrow Your Husband?

May We Borrow Your Husband? (1967)
Short Stories

“Simplicity belonged by right to those who were native-born, those who could take the conditions of life, however bizarre, for granted.”

Graham Greene book The Honorary Consul

The Honorary Consul (1973)

“Thrillers are like life—more like life than you are … it’s what we’ve all made of the world.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Bk. 1, ch. 5
The Ministry of Fear (1943)

“No danger anywhere, it seemed to Rollo Martins of that sudden reckless moment when the scent of hair or a hand against the side alters life.”

Graham Greene book The Third Man

The Third Man (1949)

“Why, after all, should we expect God to punish the innocent with more life?”

Graham Greene book The Power and the Glory

The Power and the Glory (1940)

“However great a man’s fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance—so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamour to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature.”

Graham Greene book The Comedians

Pt. 1, ch. 4, sct. 1
The Comedians (1966)