Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. In a closely beleaguered city every sentry is a potential traitor.
Graham GreeneRead
Friendship is something in the soul. It is a thing one feels. It is not a return for something.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Friendship is a deep emotional connection that doesn't rely on reciprocity or material exchange.
In this quote, Graham Greene emphasizes that true friendship goes beyond mere transactional interactions and is rooted in the emotional and spiritual realm. It highlights the intrinsic value of friendship, suggesting that it is a profound feeling that resides within the soul and should not be viewed as a trade or obligation.
Themes
FriendshipSoulEmotionConnectionTrust
In practice
Example use cases
During a toast at a wedding, one might quote Greene to highlight the importance of emotional bonds in friendships.
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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I do not want a friend who smiles when I smile, who weeps when I weep; for my shadow in the pool can do better than that.
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