The Comedians Quotes

“Like some wines our love could neither mature nor travel.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“Perhaps the sexual life is the great test. If we can survive it with charity to those we love and with affection to those we have betrayed, we needn't worry so much about the good and the bad in us. But jealousy, distrust, cruelty, revenge, recrimination ... then we fail. The wrong is in that failure even if we are the victims and not the executioners. Virtue is no excuse.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“The Church is in the world, it is part of the suffering in the world, and though Christ condemned the disciple who struck off the ear of the high priest's servant, our hearts go out in sympathy to all who are moved to violence by the suffering of others. The Church condemns violence, but it condemns indifference more harshly. Violence can be the expression of love, indifference never. One is an imperfection of charity, the other the perfection of egoism.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside, like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than water like Pilate.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“cynicism is cheap - you can buy it at any monoprix store. it's built into all poor-quality goods.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“Me? You are laughing at me. Put your hand here. This has no theology.' I mocked myself while I made love. I flung myself into pleasure like a suicide on to a pavement.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“The more unstable life is the less one likes the small details to alter.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“Ο θάνατος είναι πάντα από μόνος του μια απόδειξη ειλικρίνειας.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“You have a sense of humour. I am in favor of jokes. They have political value. Jokes are a release for the cowardly and the impotent.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“I mocked myself while I made love. I flung myself into pleasure like a suicide on to a pavement.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“The Church condemns violence, but it condemns indifference more harshly. Violence can be the expression of love, indifference never. One is an imperfection of charity, the other the perfection of egoism.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“With goodness one can feel secure; why wasn’t I satisfied with goodness, why did I always ask her the wrong questions?”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“είχα ξεχάσει εδώ και πολύ καιρό να δίνομαι και ν' ανήκω σ' οτιδήποτε, σε τέτοιο βαθμό που θα μπορούσε να πει κανείς πως είχα χάσει κατά κάποιον τρόπο την ικανότητα να ενδιαφέρομαι.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“On pouvait être a court de nourriture dans le pays, il y avait toujours de la couleur.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“Ίσως η σεξουαλική επαφή να είναι και η καίρια δοκιμή. Αν καταφέρουμε να ζήσουμε χωρίς αυτήν όλο ευσπλαχνία γι' αυτούς που αγαπάμε κι όλο συμπάθεια γι' αυτούς που έχουμε προδώσει, τότε δε χρειάζεται ν' ανησυχούμε για το καλό και το κακό που συνυπάρχουν μέσα μας. Όμως αν αφήσουμε και μας κυριαρχήσει η ζήλεια, η δυσπυστία, η σκληρότητα, η εκδικητικότητα και η ανταπόδοση, τότε έχουμε αποτύχει και το λάθος μας θα 'ναι αυτή η ίδια η αποτυχία μας, ακόμα κι αν είμαστε τα θύματα και όχι οι θύτες. Η αρετή δεν αποτελεί δικαιολογία...”
― Graham Greene , The Comedians

“I flung myself into pleasure like a suicide on to a pavement.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians [Englisch Edition]

“She was more astute than I at seeing the distant cloud of a quarrel when it was still no bigger than a man's hand, and she would usually take the right avoiding action, for when an embrace was over the quarrel was usually over too—for that occasion at least.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“For writers it is always said that the first twenty years of life contain the whole of experience – the rest is observation – but I think it is equally true of us all.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“Marcel, I know I’m an old woman and as you say a bit of an actress. But please go on pretending. As long as we pretend we escape. Pretend that I love you like a mistress. Pretend that you love me like a lover. Pretend that I would die for you and that you would die for me.’ I read the message again now; I thought it movingly phrased . . . And he had died for her, so perhaps he was no comédien after all. Death is a proof of sincerity.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“Dear Unknown Reader, do not close this Book, but read a little before you sleep. There is Wisdom here. Your Unknown Friend.’ I”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“somewhere years ago I had forgotten how to be involved in anything. Somehow somewhere I had lost completely the capacity to be concerned.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“Philipot was one of the initiates what a triumph that would represent for Papa Doc as he dragged his country down.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“My dear, try to believe we exist when you aren't there. We're independent of you. None of us is like you fancy we are. Perhaps it wouldn't matter much if your thoughts were not so dark, always so dark.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“if you have abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another mask?”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“She said, ‘I mean my husband there, Mr Smith – he was Presidential Candidate in 1948. He’s an idealist. Of course, for that very reason, he stood no chance.’ What could we have been talking about to lead her to that statement?”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“If I had been told I would have laughed, as I laugh now on my better days.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“The first colours touched the garden, deep green and then deep red – transience was my pigmentation; my roots would never go deep enough anywhere to make me a home or make me secure with love.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“But jealousy, distrust, cruelty, revenge, recrimination … then we fail. The wrong is in that failure even if we are the victims and not the executioners. Virtue is no excuse.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians

“I had felt myself not merely incapable of love – many are incapable of that, but even of guilt. There were no heights and no abysses in my world – I saw myself on a great plain, walking and walking on the interminable flats.”
― Graham Greene, The Comedians