Quotes from Joseph Conrad

law is) the pretty branding instrument invented by the overfed to protect themselves against the hungry ?

He was ruined in every way, but a man possessed of passion is not a bankrupt in life.

This mournful and restless sound was a fit accompaniment to my meditations.

Or you may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds. Then the earth for you is only a standing place- whether to be like this is your loss or your gain I won't pretend to say.

Often far away there I thought of these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant. Not many of those she looked at ever saw her again--not half, by a long way.

He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a featherhat, walking on his hind legs.

In the destructive element immerse.

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, but fear too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions. Nice little saloon, isn't it I said, as if noticing it for the first time. At noon I gave no orders for change of course, and the mates whiskers grew much concerned and seemed to be offering themselves to my unduly notice.

I thought his memory was like the other memories of the dead that accumulate in every man's life,—a vague impress on the brain of shadows that had fallen on it in their swift and final passage. . .

I remember staying to look at it for a long time, as one would linger within reach of a consoling whisper. The sky was pearly grey. It was one of those overcast days so rare in the tropics, in which memories crowd upon one, memories of other shores, of other faces.

Rich or poor, strong or weak, who among us has not begged God for a second chance?

An appeal to me in this fiendish row - is there? Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced.

Since I had peeped over the edge myself, I understand better the meaning of his stare, that could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness.

The belief in a super natural sources of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

A certain simplicity of thought is common to serene souls at both ends of the social scale.

Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end.

In some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him--all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is detestable. And it has a fascination, too, which goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination--you know.

Society was calling to its accomplished child to come, to be taken care of, to be instructed, to be judged, to be condemned; it called him to return to that rubbish heap from which he had wandered away, so that justice could be done.

If anybody had ever struggled with a soul, I am the man

She was engaged in the task of defending her position in life, said Heyst. It's a very respectable task.

Avoid irritation more than exposure to the sun...In the tropics one must before everything keep calm.' . . .

It is not the clear-sighted who rule the world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog.

Resignation, not mystic, not detached, but resignation open-eyed, conscious, and informed by love, is the only one of our feelings for which it is impossible to become a sham.

dreams are madness, my dear. It's things that happen in the waking world, while one is asleep, that one would be glad to know the meaning of.