Quotation by Graham Greene

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A Burnt-Out Case (1961)Arthur Rowe, in The Ministry of Fear (1943)A Sort of Life (1971)Dr. Magiot, in The Comedians (1966)Dr. Magiot's last letter, in The Comedians (1966)

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death (15) courage (3) resignation (2) aging (2) royalty (2) freedom (2) fathers (2) marriage (2) euthanasia (2) women (2)

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 the laws of chance—so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamour to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature.

Graham Greene

Graham Greene (1904–1991), British novelist. Dr. Magiot, in The Comedians, pt. 1, ch. 4, sct. 1 (1966).

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