Journey Into Fear (1943)

Frank Readick: Matthews

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Quotes 

• Matthews : War is the last refuge of the capitalist.

• Matthews : Has your wife got a bad temper, Mr. Graham?

  Howard Graham : No, very good.

  Matthews : You're lucky. For years I lived in misery. Then one day I made a great discovery. There was a socialist meeting and I went to it. I wasn't a socialist, understand, I went to this meeting because I was curious. The speaker was good. Then a week later we went out with some friends, and I repeated what I heard. My wife laughed in a very peculiar way, and when I got home, I made a discovery. I found out my wife was a snob, and even more stupid than I dreamed. She said that I humiliated her by saying such things as if I believed them. And all her friends were respectable people, and I mustn't speak as if I was a working man. She wept! Then I knew that I was free. Mr. Graham, I bought books and pamphlets to make my arguments more damaging. My wife became very docile. She even cooked things I liked, just so I wouldn't disgrace her.

  Howard Graham : I see. So, you don't believe these things you say?

  Matthews : No. That's where my little joke comes in. Mr. Graham, for awhile I was free, then a terrible thing happened. I found I began to believe these things that I said. These books I read showed me that I'd found a truth. I, a capitalist by instinct, became a socialist by conviction. Worse than that, there was a strike at the factory, and I, the manager, supported the strikers! I didn't belong to a union, naturally, and so I was dismissed. It was ridiculous! So here I am. I've become a man in my home at the price of becoming a bore outside.

• Matthews : It is the women I think who should fight these wars. They're more ferocious as patriots than the men.