The Heart of the Matter

by Graham Greene

so much of life was a putting off of unhappiness for another time.

Then I think of my daughter. There was just enough good in me once for you to be fashioned. A wife shares too much of a man’s sin for perfect love. But a daughter may save him at the last.

The truth, he thought, has never been of any real value to any human being—it is a symbol for mathematicians and philosophers to pursue. In human relations kindness and ties are worth a thousand truths.

friendship is something in the soul. It is a thing one feels. It is not a return for something.

I am crazy about Shakespeare. Sometimes because of Shakespeare I would like to be able to read, but I am too old to learn.

The Church knows all the rules. But it doesn’t know what goes on in a single human heart.