| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 25964 |
| QUOTATION: | Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Graham Greene (1904–1991), British novelist. The Quiet American, pt. 1, ch. 3, sct. 3 (1955).
Later in the book, the narrator describes Pyle—”the quiet American” of the title, a fumbling idealist in Cold-War Vietnam—in similar terms: “What’s the good? He’ll always be innocent, you can’t blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity.” (pt. 3, ch. 2, sct. 1). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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