Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. In a closely beleaguered city every sentry is a potential traitor.
Graham GreeneRead
It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death: I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the pain of a failing relationship that feels like a living creature suffering.
Graham Greene uses a powerful metaphor to illustrate the agony of love that is deteriorating. The imagery of a small creature caught in a trap highlights the vulnerability and helplessness associated with love in distress, suggesting that sometimes we are forced to confront painful decisions to end suffering—even if it means taking drastic actions, as difficult as they may be. This metaphor encapsulates the complexity of emotions tied to love, loss, and sacrifice.
Themes
LovePainSufferingRelationshipSacrifice
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the challenges of love, one might quote 'It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap...' to illustrate the struggles faced in relationships.
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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