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
Happiness is a state of mind. It's just according to the way you look at things.
Walt DisneyRead
A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.
Leo TolstoyRead
The joy of losing consists in this: Where there are no expectations, there is no disappointment.
Charles KrauthammerRead
Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.
Bertolt BrechtRead
It struck her how eating was a comfort during a hard time because it reminded you that there had been other days, good days, when you’d eaten the same thing. Reminded you there were good days in life, when precious little else did. (268)
Ron RashRead
A journal, is a book that shall contain a record of all your joy, your ecstasy, what you are grateful for.
Henry David ThoreauRead