Joseph Conrad idézet
Joseph Conrad
Születési dátum: 3. december 1857
Halál dátuma: 3. augusztus 1924
Joseph Conrad , lengyel születésű angol regényíró.
Az akkoriban az Orosz Birodalomhoz tartozó Ukrajnában, Bergyicsevben született. Szüleit korán elvesztette; nagybátyja nevelte fel.
Miután megtanult franciául, hajóra szegődött, és négy év alatt három utat tett meg a nyugat-indiai szigetvilágba. Súlyos anyagi problémái miatt 1878 márciusában öngyilkosságot kísérelt meg. Nagybátyja ekkor a segítségére sietett, és júniusban Conrad partra szállt Angliában, ahol nyolc év múlva megkapta az állampolgárságot. 36 éves korában befejezte tengerészi karrierjét, miután beutazta szinte az egész Földet Dél-Amerikától Ausztráliáig, és letelepedett Angliában. 1896-ban feleségül vette Jessie George-ot, akitől később két fia született . Kentbe költözött, és néhány francia és lengyel látogatástól eltekintve ott is élt élete végéig. Szívrohamban halt meg 1924 augusztusában. Canterburyben temették el, sírkövén a lengyel neve látható. Wikipedia
Idézetek Joseph Conrad
„The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.“
— Joseph Conrad, könyv The Mirror of the Sea
Forrás: The Mirror of the Sea (1906), Ch. 35
Kontextus: For all that has been said of the love that certain natures (on shore) have professed to feel for it, for all the celebrations it had been the object of in prose and song, the sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.
„Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.“
— Joseph Conrad, könyv Chance
Forrás: Chance (1913) part II, Ch. 5
„The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.“
— Joseph Conrad, könyv Under Western Eyes
Pt. II, ch. 4
Forrás: Under Western Eyes (1911)
„It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.“
— Joseph Conrad, könyv An Outcast of the Islands
Forrás: 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."
„It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.“
— Joseph Conrad, könyv Heart of Darkness
Forrás: Heart of Darkness
„Let them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I sank -- but that's not the same thing.“
Forrás: The Secret Sharer and other stories
„My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see.“
— Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim
Változat: My task is to make you hear, to make you feel, and, above all, to make you see. That is all, and it is everything.
Forrás: Lord Jim
„I don't like work--no man does--but I like what is in the work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself not for others--what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.“
— Joseph Conrad, könyv Heart of Darkness
Forrás: Heart of Darkness
„All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force.“
— Joseph Conrad, könyv The Secret Agent
Forrás: The Secret Agent (1907), Ch. 13
Kontextus: 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.
„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, könyv Under Western Eyes
Pt. I
Under Western Eyes (1911)
Kontextus: 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.
