Quote #52

I have often noticed that a bribe...has that effect - it changes a relation. The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman.

More from Graham Greene

  1. However great a man's fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by …
  2. We mustn't complain too much of being comedians-it's an honourable profession. If only we could be good ones the world might gain at least …
  3. Cynicism is cheap-you can buy it at any Monoprix store-it's built into all poor-quality goods.
  4. Communism, my friend, is more than Marxism, just as Catholicism ... is more than the Roman Curia. There is a mystique as well as a politiqu…
  5. What right had I to value her less than the bodies in the square? Suffering is not increased by numbers; one body can contain all the suffe…
  6. There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.
  7. Sooner or later...one has to take sides - if one is to remain human.
  8. Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detec…

All Graham Greene quotes