Joseph Conrad Quotes
They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.
Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end.
It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.
History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.
Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory, and the truth of every passion wants some pretence to make it live.
The atmosphere of officialdom would kill anything that breathes the air of human endeavour, would extinguish hope and fear alike in the supremacy of paper and ink.
A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.
It is my belief no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self knowledge.
To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
The end (goal) of art is to figure the hidden meaning of things and not their appearance; for in this profound truth lies their true reality, which does not appear in their external outlines.
I let him run on, this papier-maché Mephistopheles, and it seemed to me that if I tried I could poke my forefinger through him, and would find nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe.
The humblest craft that floats makes its appeal to a seaman by the faithfulness of her life.
One must explore deep and believe the incredible to find the new particles of truth floating in an ocean of insignificance.
Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.
The discovery of America was the occasion of the greatest outburst of cruelty and reckless greed known in history.
Everything belonged to him--but that was a trifle. The thing to know was what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.
In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent.
As to honor - you know - it's a very fine mediaeval inheritance which women never got hold of. It wasn't theirs.
Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.
For there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence.
A writing may be lost; a lie may be written; but what the eye has seen is truth and remains in the mind!
Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.
The sky over Patusan was blood-red, immense, streaming like an open vein. An enormous sun nestled crimson amongst the treetops, and the forest below had a black and forbidding face.
Only in men's imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence--but more generally takes the form of apathy
The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind.
It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune-the ally of patient Time-that holds an even and scrupulous balance.
The conquest of the earth... is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only... not a sentimental pretence but an idea.
The last thing a woman will consent to in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage.
Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.
A certain simplicity of thought is common to serene souls at both ends of the social scale.
A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries to climb out into the air as inexperienced people endeavor to do, he drowns.
Nations it may be have fashioned their Governments, but the Governments have paid them back in the same coin.