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The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

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‘<strong>The</strong> Spleen’ (1737) l. 92<br />

By happy alchemy <strong>of</strong> mind<br />

<strong>The</strong>y turn to pleasure all they find.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Spleen’ (1737) l. 610<br />

7.90 Graham Greene 1904-91<br />

Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside,<br />

like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than<br />

water like Pilate.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Comedians’ (1966) pt. 3, ch. 4<br />

He gave her a bright fake smile; so much <strong>of</strong> life was a putting-<strong>of</strong>f <strong>of</strong> unhappiness for another<br />

time. Nothing was ever lost by delay.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter’ (1948) bk. 1, pt. 1, ch. 1<br />

Against the beautiful and the clever and the successful, one can wage a pitiless war, but not<br />

against the unattractive.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter’ (1948) bk. 1, pt. 1, ch. 2<br />

<strong>The</strong>y had been corrupted by money, and he had been corrupted by sentiment. Sentiment was<br />

the more dangerous, because you couldn’t name its price. A man open to bribes was to be relied<br />

upon below a certain figure, but sentiment might uncoil in the heart at a name, a photograph, even<br />

a smell remembered.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter’ (1948) bk. 1, pt. 1, ch. 2<br />

Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter’ (1948) bk. 1, pt. 1, ch. 2<br />

Here you could love human beings nearly as God loved them, knowing the worst; you didn’t<br />

love a pose, a pretty dress, a sentiment artfully assumed.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter’ (1948) bk. 1, pt. 1, ch. 5<br />

He felt the loyalty we all feel to unhappiness—the sense that that is where we really belong.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter’ (1948) bk. 2, pt. 2, ch. 1<br />

Any victim demands allegiance.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter’ (1948) bk. 3, pt. 1, ch. 1<br />

His hilarity was like a scream from a crevasse.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter’ (1948) bk. 3, pt. 1, ch. 1<br />

<strong>The</strong>re is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Power and the Glory’ (1940) pt. 1, ch. 1<br />

Innocence always calls mutely for protection, when we would be so much wiser to guard<br />

ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world<br />

meaning no harm.<br />

‘<strong>The</strong> Quiet American’ (1955) pt. 1, ch. 3<br />

If only it were possible to love without injury—fidelity isn’t enough...<strong>The</strong> hurt is in the act <strong>of</strong><br />

possession: we are too small in mind and body to possess another person without pride or to be

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