A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment from which to look back or from which to look ahead. The End of the Affair (1951)
To me comfort is like the wrong memory at the wrong place or time: if one is lonely one prefers discomfort. The End of the Affair (1951)
Sometimes I see myself reflected too closely in other men for comfort, and then I have an enormous wish to believe in the saints, in heroic virtue. The End of the Affair (1951)
If we had not been taught how to interpret the story of the Passion, would we have been able to say from their actions alone whether it was jealous Judas or the cowardly Peter who loved Christ? The End of the Affair (1951)
The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belong to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity. The End of the Affair (1951)