Quotes from Joseph Conrad

The next gust seemed to blow all this away. The air was full of flying water. There was a fierce purpose in the gale, a furious earnestness in the screech of the wind, in the brutal tumult of earth and sky, that seemed directed at him, and made him hold his breath in awe. He stood still. It seemed to him he was whirled around.

he is the perfect flower of the terroristic wilderness. What troubled me most in dealing with him was not his monstrosity but his banality.

How can we fight the French, Prince? said Count Rostopchin. Can we arm ourselves against our teachers and divinities?

I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself.

He attended some lectures somewhere and imagines that the devil is no match for him.

The mind of man is capable of anything." ? Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness and the Congo Diary

O Virgins sacrosanct! if ever hunger, Vigils, or cold for you I have endured, The occasion spurs me their reward to claim!

The Coles were very respectable in their way, but they ought to be taught that it was not for them to arrange the terms on which the superior families would visit them.

people are not the product of the exceptional but of the general—of the normality of their place, and time, and race

The man up there raged aloud in two languages, and with a sincerity in his fury that almost convinced me I had, in some way, sinned against the harmony of the universe

The callow birdlet waits for two or three, But to the eyes of those already fledged, In vain the net is spread or shaft is shot.

The truth travels over the earth secretly; it seeks a nest among the people. To the authorities it's like a knife in the fire. They cannot accept it. It will cut them and burn them. Truth is your good friend and a sworn enemy of the authorities — that's why it hides itself.

What had she to do with the justice or injustice of other people? She had to endure and love, and that she did.

Blessed art thou, O Griffin

The Emperor proposes to give all commanders of divisions the right to shoot marauders, but I much fear this will oblige one half the army to shoot the other.

Give them all of my dear love and a kiss. Tell them I think of them by day, pray for them by night, and find my best comfort in their affection at all times.

Her son's growth toward manhood, at each of its stages, had seemed as extraordinary to her as if there had never existed the millions of human beings who grew up in the same way.

A estrada seria longa. Todas as estradas que levam ao que o nosso coração almeja são longas

We live as we dream - alone

um homem deveria enfrentar sua má sorte, sua consciência, e todas essas coisas. - Ora - o que mais há para se combater?

recollect thee now That thou this very day hast drunk of Lethe;

This, let me remind you again, is a love story; you can see it by the imbecility, not a repulsive imbecility, the exalted imbecility of these proceedings, this station in torchlight, as if they had come there on purpose to have it out for the edification of concealed murderers.

flag for an instant, so that the princess, who

The time therefore that any man doth live, is but a little, and the place where he liveth, is but a very little corner of the earth, and the greatest fame that can remain of a man after his death, even that is but little, and that too, such as it is whilst it is, is by the succession of silly mortal men preserved, who likewise shall shortly die, and even whiles they live know not what in very deed they themselves are: and much less can know one, who long before is dead and gone.