Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. In a closely beleaguered city every sentry is a potential traitor.
Interpretation
Insecurity can distort perceptions and undermine trust between people.
Graham Greene's quote highlights how insecurity can lead to misunderstandings and erode the foundation of trust in relationships. In a tense environment, where individuals are constantly on guard, their fears and doubts can turn even loyal allies into perceived threats, ultimately harming interpersonal connections and communication.
In practice
This quote can be used in a seminar on trust-building in personal and professional relationships.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Success is more dangerous than failure, the ripples break over a wider coastline.
Marriage is not a noun; it's a verb. It isn't something you get. It's something you do. It's the way you love your partner every day.
Relationships matter: the currency for systemic change was trust, and trust comes through forming healthy working relationships. People, not programs, change people.
My husband is an opposition MP. Our political alliance may have fallen through, but our matrimonial alliance is intact.
Being human, we are imperfect. That's why we need each other. To catch each other when we falter. To encourage each other when we lose heart. Some may lead; others may follow; but none of us can go it alone.
It's very rare to have a patient who isn't absolutely delighted when you say, 'I read your feedback. The session didn't go well. You actually got more upset, and I made about three really horrible errors.' If you do that from the heart and not as a gimmick, boy, it's a wonderful thing.
Don't be ashamed if you don't like what others pretend to love
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.