Source: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
“I can't tell if a straw ever saved a drowning man, but I know that a mere glance is enough to make despair pause. For in truth we who are creatures of impulse are not creatures of despair.”
—
Joseph Conrad
,
book
Chance
Chance (1913), part I, Ch. 6
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "I can't tell if a straw ever saved a drowning man, but I know that a mere glance is enough to make despair pause. For i…" by Joseph Conrad?
Joseph Conrad 127
Polish-British writer 1857–1924Related quotes
Albert Einstein
(1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Source: "Einstein's Reply to Criticisms" (1949), The World As I See It (1949)
Context: What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.
“If we can't be cordial to these creatures' fleece, I think that we deserve to freeze.”
Marianne Moore
(1887–1972) American poet and writer
Source: Complete Poems
John Wesley
(1703–1791) Christian theologian
Thoughts Upon Slavery (1774)
Context: I deny that villany is ever necessary. It is impossible that it should ever be necessary for any reasonable creature to violate all the laws of justice, mercy, and truth. No circumstances can make it necessary for a man to burst in sunder all the ties of humanity. It can never be necessary for a rational being to sink himself below a brute. A man can be under no necessity of degrading himself into a wolf. The absurdity of the supposition is so glaring, that one would wonder any one can help seeing it.
Frank Van Dun
(1947) Belgian law philosopher
"The Logic of Common Morality" http://web.archive.org/web/20060616233942/http://www.stephankinsella.com/texts/vandun_philosophy_argument.pdf, from E.M. Barth and J.L. Martens, eds., Argumentation Approaches to Theory Formation: Containing the contributions to the Groningen Conference on the Theory of Argumentation, October 1978 (Benjamins, 1982; original from the University of Michigan, digitized Mar 12, 2007. ISBN 9-027-23007-2, 333 pages).
Robinson Jeffers
(1887–1962) American poet
"The Answer" (1936)
Context: Know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand
Is an ugly thing and man dissevered from the earth and stars
and his history... for contemplation or in fact...
Often appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness,
the greatest beauty is
Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty
of the universe. Love that, not man
Apart from that, or else you will share man's pitiful confusions,
or drown in despair when his days darken.
