The Heart of the Matter
First published 1948 · English · 272 pages
- Novels
- War
- Love and romance
Scobie, an honest and conscientious police officer, is stationed in a British colony in West Africa during the Second World War. Passed over for promotion and under pressure from his unhappy wife, he finds himself drawn into compromises that trouble his conscience. His sense of pity for others leads him into ever more difficult entanglements. The novel is a searching portrait of decency under strain, with Greene's usual interest in faith, duty and moral choice.
Quotes
Against the beautiful and the clever and the successful, one can wage a pitiless war, but not against the unattractive: then the millstone weighs on the breast.
The truth, he thought, has never been of any real value to any human being - it is a symbol for mathematicians and the philosophers to pursue. In human relations kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.
Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either extreme egotism, evil - or else an absolute ignorance.
It's not really much good tearing out a page because you can see the place where it's been torn.' [...] 'You can pull a stamp out,' she said with terrible youthful clarity, 'and you don't know that it's ever been there.