Quotes from book
The Ministry of Fear

Name: The Ministry of Fear
Author: Graham Greene

The Ministry of Fear is a 1943 novel written by Graham Greene. It was first published in Britain by William Heinemann. It was made into the 1944 film Ministry of Fear, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Ray Milland.

“One can't love humanity. One can only love people.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Source: The Ministry of Fear

“We forget very easily what gives us pain.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Source: The Ministry of Fear

“Pity is cruel. Pity destroys.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Source: The Ministry of Fear

“A man kept his character even when he was insane.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Source: The Ministry of Fear

“It is always of interest to know what strikes another human being as remarkable.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Source: The Ministry of Fear

“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)

“A murderer is regarded by the conventional world as something almost monstrous, but a murderer to himself is only an ordinary man…. It is only if the murderer is a good man that he can be regarded as monstrous.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Bk. 1, ch. 7, sct. 1
The Ministry of Fear (1943)

“People don't like reality, they don't like common sense, until age forces it on them.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

The Ministry of Fear (1943)

“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)

“In childhood we live under the brightness of immortality — heaven is as near and actual as the seaside. Behind the complicated details of the world stand the simplicities: God is good, the grown-up man or woman knows the answer to every question, there is such a thing as truth, and justice is as measured and faultless as a clock. Our heroes are simple: they are brave, they tell the truth, they are good swordsmen and they are never in the long run really defeated. That is why no later books satisfy us like those which were read to us in childhood—for those promised a world of great simplicity of which we knew the rules, but the later books are complicated and contradictory with experience; they are formed out of our own disappointing memories.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Bk. 1, ch. 7, sct. 1
The Ministry of Fear (1943)

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