“Facing it — always facing it — that's the way to get through.”
Joseph Conrad book Typhoon
Typhoon (1902), Ch. 5
Joseph Conrad: Trending quotes
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Joseph Conrad book Under Western Eyes
Pt. II, ch. 4
Source: Under Western Eyes (1911)
“It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”
Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness
Source: Heart of Darkness
“It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.”
Joseph Conrad book An Outcast of the Islands
Source: An Outcast of the Islands (1896), Pt. 3, Ch. 2; possibly an adaptation of a Polish proverb, "Ten się nie myli, kto nic nie robi" — "One is not wrong, who does nothing."
“We live as we dream - alone. While the dream disappears, the life continues painfully.”
Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness
Source: Heart of Darkness
“Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.”
Joseph Conrad book Chance
Source: Chance (1913) part II, Ch. 5
“All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force.”
Joseph Conrad book The Secret Agent
Source: The Secret Agent (1907), Ch. 13
Context: All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force. And madness and despair are a force. And force is a crime in the eyes of the fools, the weak and the silly who rule the roost. You are mediocre. Verloc, whose affair the police has managed to smother so nicely, was mediocre. And the police murdered him. He was mediocre. Everybody is mediocre. Madness and despair! Give me that for a lever, and I'll move the world. Ossipon, you have my cordial scorn. You are incapable of conceiving even what the fat-fed citizen would call a crime. You have no force.
Joseph Conrad book Under Western Eyes
Pt. I
Under Western Eyes (1911)
Context: 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.
“Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.”
Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness
Source: Heart of Darkness
“It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.”
Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness
Source: Heart of Darkness
“Perhaps life is just that… a dream and a fear.”
Joseph Conrad book Under Western Eyes
Pt. IV, ch. 2
Under Western Eyes (1911)
“He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away.”
Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness
Source: Heart of Darkness
“Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality.”
Joseph Conrad book Under Western Eyes
Pt. I
Source: Under Western Eyes (1911)
Context: 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.
“Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys.”
Variant: Gossip is what no one claims to like – but everybody enjoys.