Joseph Conrad Quotes & Joseph Conrad Sayings

"Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love - and to put its trust in life." Joseph Conrad A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Joseph Conrad A man's most open actions have a secret side to them. Joseph Conrad Remarks A man's real life is that accorded to him in the thoughts of other men by reason of respect or natural love. Joseph Conrad A word carries far - very far - deals destruction through time as the bullets go flying through space. Joseph Conrad Remarks Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of illusions. Joseph Conrad Remarks All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind. Joseph Conrad All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward upon the miseries and credulities of mankind Joseph Conrad Sayings As in political so in literary action a man wins friends for himself mostly by the passion of his prejudices and the consistent narrowness of his outlook. Joseph Conrad Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men. Joseph Conrad Remarks Criticism, that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters. Joseph Conrad Adages Danger lies in the writer becoming the victim of his own exaggeration, losing the exact notion of sincerity, and in the end coming to despise truth itself as something too cold, too blunt for his purpose -- as, in fact, not good enough for his insistent emotion. From laughter and tears the descent is easy to sniveling and giggles. Joseph Conrad Don't talk to me of your Archimedes' lever. He was an absentminded person with a mathematical imagination. Mathematics commands all my respect, but I have no use for engines. Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world. Joseph Conrad 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. Joseph Conrad Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it. Joseph Conrad For every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early, and the human race come to an end Joseph Conrad Adages Going home must be like going to render an account. Joseph Conrad Quotes Hang ideas! They are tramps, vagabonds, knocking at the back-door of your mind, each taking a little of your substance, each carrying away some crumb of that belief in a few simple notions you must cling to if you want to live decently and would like to die easy! Joseph Conrad He remembered that she was pretty, and, more, that she had a special grace in the intimacy of life. She had the secret of individuality which excites--and escapes. Joseph Conrad He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was it! Joseph Conrad Remarks He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense. Joseph Conrad Remarks His eyes were naturally heavy; he had an air of having wallowed, fully dressed, all day on an unmade bed. Joseph Conrad Sayings How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do you shoot a spectre through the heart, slash off its spectral head, take it by the spectral throat? Joseph Conrad How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do you shoot a specter through the heart, slash off its spectral head, take it by its spectral throat? Joseph Conrad Adages I don't like work no man does but I like what is in the work the chance to find yourself Joseph Conrad I don't like work... but I like what is in work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - which no other man can ever know. Joseph Conrad Popular Quotes I don't like work... but I like what is in work -- the chance to find yourself. Your own reality -- for yourself, not for others -- which no other man can ever know. Joseph Conrad Quotes I had ambition not only to go farther than any man had ever been before, but as far as it was possible for a man to go. Joseph Conrad I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat. Joseph Conrad I take it that what all men are really after is some form or perhaps only some formula of peace. Joseph Conrad Quotations Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow. Joseph Conrad Sayings It is a maudlin and indecent verity that comes out through the strength of wine. Joseph Conrad Quotes It is respectable to have no illusions - and safe - and profitable, and dull Joseph Conrad It occurred to me that my speech or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility Joseph Conrad Adages It's extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome. Joseph Conrad It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose Joseph Conrad 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. Joseph Conrad Adages Perhaps life is just that... a dream and a fear. Joseph Conrad Quotes Some great men owe most of their greatness to the ability of detecting in those they destine for their tools the exact quality of strength that matters for their work. Joseph Conrad Quotations The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary: men alone are quite capable of every wickedness Joseph Conrad Popular Quotes The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary: men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Joseph Conrad The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Joseph Conrad Quotes The East Wind, an interloper in the dominions of Westerly Weather, is an impassive-faced tyrant with a sharp poniard held behind his back for a treacherous stab. Joseph Conrad The future is of our own making - and the most striking characteristic of the century is just that development Joseph Conrad The last thing a woman will consent to discover in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage. Joseph Conrad The mind of man is capable of anything because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future Joseph Conrad Sayings The mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. Joseph Conrad Quotes The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil water-way leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness. Joseph Conrad Quotes The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind Joseph Conrad Quotations The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power. Joseph Conrad The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness. Joseph Conrad There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery Joseph Conrad There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery. Joseph Conrad This magnificent butterfly finds a little heap of dirt and sits still on it; but man will never on his heap of mud keep still. Joseph Conrad Quotations Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory Joseph Conrad Adages Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory. Joseph Conrad We live, as we dream alone Joseph Conrad What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow-men's existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history? Joseph Conrad Who knows what true loneliness is - not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion. Joseph Conrad Remarks Who knows what true loneliness is -- not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion. Joseph Conrad Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love - and to put its trust in life. Joseph Conrad Adages Words, as is well known, are great foes of reality. Joseph Conrad Popular Quotes Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality. I have been for many years a teacher of languages. It is an occupation which at length becomes fatal to whatever share of imagination, observation, and insight an ordinary person may be heir to. To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot. Joseph Conrad Remarks You perceive the force of a word. He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense. I don’t say this by way of disparagement. It is better for mankind to be impressionable than reflective. Nothing humanely great—great, I mean, as affecting a whole mass of lives—has come from reflection. On the other hand, you cannot fail to see the power of mere words; such words as Glory, for instance, or Pity. I won’t mention any more. They are not far to seek. Shouted with perseverance, with ardor, with conviction, these two by their sound alone have set whole nations in motion and upheaved the dry, hard ground on which rests our whole social fabric. There’s “virtue” for you if you like!… Of course, the accent must be attended to. The right accent. That’s very important. The capacious lung, the thundering or the tender vocal chords. Don’t talk to me of your Archimedes’ lever. He was an absent-minded person with a mathematical imagination. Mathematics commands all my respect, but I have no use for engines. Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world. What a dream for a writer! Because written words have their accent, too. Yes! Let me only find the right word! Surely it must be lying somewhere among the wreckage of all the plaints and all the exultations poured out aloud since the first day when hope, the undying, came down on earth. It may be there, close by, disregarded, invisible, quite at hand. But it’s no good. I believe there are men who can lay hold of a needle in a pottle of hay at the first try. For myself, I have never had such luck. Joseph Conrad Quotes You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends. Joseph Conrad Adages