Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. In a closely beleaguered city every sentry is a potential traitor.
Graham GreeneRead
Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil - or else an absolute ignorance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True happiness often involves selflessness and a deeper understanding of life rather than mere ignorance or selfish desires.
Graham Greene's quote suggests that identifying a truly happy person is complicated. It implies that superficial happiness is often linked to negative traits such as egotism and selfishness, while genuine joy is likely accompanied by a profound awareness of the complexities of life. The quote critiques the misguided perceptions of happiness that overlook the importance of empathy and self-awareness.
Themes
HappinessIgnoranceSelfishnessEgotismSelflessness
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about the true nature of happiness.
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
Similar quotes
One thing I am convinced more and more is true, and that is this: The only way to be truly happy is to make others happy. When you realize that and take advantage of the fact, everything is made perfect.
William Carlos WilliamsRead
Don't you stay at home of evenings? Don't you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can't see and doesn't know anything about.
Dwight L. MoodyRead
Happiness presents itself to man, wearing the crown of sorrow on its head. He who welcomes it must also welcome sorrow.
Swami VivekanandaRead
As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?
Anne FrankRead
By breaking down our sense of self-importance, all we lose is a parasite that has long infected our minds. What we gain in return is freedom, openness of mind, spontaneity, simplicity, altruism: all qualities inherent in happiness.
Matthieu RicardRead