Quotes About Joseph Conrad

#1. You know, I've read Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' about fifteen times.

James Balog

#2. After reading Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad when I was a student at Yale, I wanted to live in the world they captured in their books. I had had some experience living in Africa. I was drawn to that kind of adventure.

Leslie Cockburn

#3. Some men will never be heroes, some heroes will never be men, he thought, with urgent acknowledgements to Joseph Conrad.

John Le Carre

#4. If circumstances should make it impossible (temporarily, I hope) for me to be a Russian writer, perhaps I shall be able, like the Pole Joseph Conrad, to become for a time an English writer ... ("Letter To Stalin")

Yevgeny Zamyatin

#5. Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist. That this simple truth is glossed over in criticisms of his work is due to the fact that white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its manifestations go completely unremarked.

Chinua Achebe

#6. Joseph Conrad once wrote that 'it is the peculiarity of Russian natures that however sharply engaged in the drama of action, they are still turning their ear to the murmur of abstract ideas'.106

S.A. Smith

#7. I just gave them a little scare. A touch of psychological terror. As Joseph Conrad once wrote, true terror is the kind that men feel towards their imagination. (from Super-frog Saves Tokyo)

Haruki Murakami

#8. Writing about Africa by Africans has been part of my literary apprenticeship, standing alongside works by authors such as Joseph Conrad, Joyce Cary and Graham Greene as influences.

Giles Foden

#9. We get ourselves in trouble because it's a cheap way to get attention. Trouble is a faux form of fame. It's easier to get busted in the bedroom with the faculty chairman's wife than it is to finish that dissertation on the metaphysics of motley in the novellas of Joseph Conrad.

Steven Pressfield

#10. We had all these famous writers in Sweden and from all over the world home at dinner. I wanted to be a writer, and I wanted to be a highbrow writer as my father. He never, ever read anything like crime novels. He wrote biographies of Dante, James Joyce, August Strindberg and Joseph Conrad.

David Lagercrantz

#11. My husband was getting his sea legs-rereading Joseph Conrad with a side order of C S Forester.

Enid Nemy

#12. Joseph Conrad once said that a man who is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea

Joseph Conrad

#13. The God that Nietzsche imagined, in the end, was not far from the God that such an artist as Joseph Conrad imagines - a supreme craftsman, ever experimenting, ever coming closer to an ideal balancing of lines and forces, and yet always failing to work out the final harmony.

Friedrich Nietzsche

#14. Don't people know that it's the hardest work in the world? Joseph Conrad said that he had loaded hundredweights of coal all day long on a ship in Amsterdam in the wintertime, and that is was nothing to the energy demanded for a day's work writing.

Mary Lee Settle

#15. They will be bound to make some arrests, he thought, with something resembling virtuous indignation, for the even tenor of his revolutionary life was menaced by no fault of his.

Joseph Conrad

#16. It is a fact that the bitterest contradictions and the deadliest conflicts of the world are carried on in every individual breast capable of feeling and passion. [An anarchist]

Joseph Conrad

#17. Was on the point of crying at her, 'Don't you hear them?' The dusk was repeating them in a persistent whisper all around us, in a whisper that seemed to swell menacingly like the

Joseph Conrad

#18. This castaway, that, like a man transplanted into another planet, was separated by an immense space from his past and by an immense ignorance from his future.

Joseph Conrad

#19. For a moment I had a view of a world that seemed to wear a vast and dismal aspect of disorder, while, in truth, thanks to our unwearied efforts, it is as sunny an arrangement of small conveniences as the mind of man can conceive.

Joseph Conrad

#20. The calm was absolute, a dead, flat calm, the stillness of a dead sea and of a dead atmosphere.

Joseph Conrad

#21. 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.

Joseph Conrad

#22. A woman's true tenderness, like the true virility of man, is expressed in action of a conquering kind.

Joseph Conrad

#23. Is there a spot on earth where such a man is unknown, an ominous survival testifying to the eternal fitness of lies and impudence?

Joseph Conrad

#24. Conrad placed on the title page an epigraph taken from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene:
"Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please"
This also became Conrad's epitaph.

Joseph Conrad

#25. The making of a fortune cannot be achieved without some roughness. It is a matter of temperament. His

Joseph Conrad

#26. Like a flash of lightning between the clouds, we live in the flicker.

Joseph Conrad

#27. Yet, when one thinks of it, diplomacy without force is a but a rotten reed to lean upon.

Joseph Conrad

#28. He struggled with himself, too. I saw it
I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.

Joseph Conrad

#29. Way I can explain it to you is by saying that, for a second or two, I felt as though, instead of going to the center of a continent, I were about to set off for the

Joseph Conrad

#30. His mind, cool, alert, watched it sink there with a sort of vague concern at the absurdity of the occupation, till it rested at the bottom, deep down, where our unexpressed longings lie.

Joseph Conrad

#31. The common misery of destitution would have made a bitter mockery of a marked insistence on social differences. Gaspar

Joseph Conrad

#32. And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth.

Joseph Conrad

#33. The earth seemed unearthly.

Joseph Conrad

#34. I had to bear the sunken glare of his fierce crow-footed eyes if I wanted to know; and so I bore it, reflecting how much certain forms of evil are akin to madness, derived from intense egoism, inflamed by resistance, tearing the soul to pieces, and giving factitious vigour to the body.

Joseph Conrad

#35. To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.

Joseph Conrad

#36. I can't afford to despise anything. An absurdity may be the starting-point of the most dangerous complications.

Joseph Conrad

#37. Things and men have always a certain sense, a certain side by which they must be got hold of if one wants to obtain a solid grasp and a perfect command.

Joseph Conrad

#38. All this happened in much less time than it takes to tell, since I am trying to interpret for you into slow speech the instantaneous effect of visual impressions.

Joseph Conrad

#39. Does the price matter, if the trick be well done? You do your tricks very well. And I didn't do badly either, since I managed not to sink that steamboat on my first trip. It's a wonder to me yet. Imagine a blindfolded man set to

Joseph Conrad

#40. One must explore deep and believe the incredible to find the new particles of truth floating in an ocean of insignificance.

Joseph Conrad

#41. There are men here and there to whom the whole of life is like an after-dinner hour with a cigar; easy, pleasant, empty, perhaps enlivened by some fable of strife to be forgotten - before the end is told - even if there happens to be any end to it.

Joseph Conrad

#42. Over the lives borne from under the shadow of death there seems to fall the shadow of madness.

Joseph Conrad

#43. In the time of Spanish rule, and for many years afterwards, the town of Sulaco
the luxuriant beauty of the orange gardens bears witness to its antiquity
had never been commercially anything more important than a coasting port with a fairly large local trade in ox-hides and indigo.

Joseph Conrad

#44. The use of reason is to justify the obscure desires that move our conduct, impulses, passions, prejudices and follies, and also our fears.

Joseph Conrad

#45. Some of us, regarding the ocean with understanding and affection, have seen it looking old, as if the immemorial ages had been stirred up from the undisturbed bottom of ooze. For it is a gale of wind that makes the sea look old.

Joseph Conrad

#46. One moment and bright the next. When the manager, escorted by the pilgrims, all of them armed to the teeth, had gone to the house, this chap came on board. 'I say, I don't like this. These natives are in the bush,' I said. He assured me earnestly it was all right. 'They are simple

Joseph Conrad

#47. Leading questions as to my acquaintances in the sepulchral city, and so on. His little eyes glittered

Joseph Conrad

#48. On men reprieved by its disdainful mercy, the immortal sea confers in its justice the full privilege of desired unrest.

Joseph Conrad

#49. The fault of this country is the want of measure in political life. Flat acquiescence in illegality, followed by sanguinary reaction - that, senores, is not the way to a stable and prosperous future.

Joseph Conrad

#50. There is never enough time to say our last word-the last word of our love, of our desire, faith, remorse, submission, revolt.

Joseph Conrad

#51. And for a moment it seemed to me as if I also were buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets.

Joseph Conrad

#52. There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.

Joseph Conrad

#53. They had behind them, to my mind, the terrific suggestiveness of words heard in dreams, of phrases spoken in nightmares.

Joseph Conrad

#54. The audacity of youth reckons upon what it fancies an unlimited time at its disposal; but a millionaire has unlimited means in his hand - which is better. One's time on earth is an uncertain quantity, but about the long reach of millions there is no doubt.

Joseph Conrad

#55. It is my belief no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge.

Joseph Conrad

#56. One can't live with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse.

Joseph Conrad

#57. There can be no life without faith and love - faith in a human heart, love of a human being! That

Joseph Conrad

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

Joseph Conrad

#59. Truth of a modest sort I can promise you, and also sincerity. That complete, praiseworthy sincerity which, while it delivers one into the hands of one's enemies, is as likely as not to embroil one with one's friends.

Joseph Conrad

#60. My task is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel
it is, before all, to make you see. That
and no more, and it is everything.

Joseph Conrad

#61. This magnificent butterfly finds a little heap of dirt and sits still on it; but man will never on his heap of mud keep still.

Joseph Conrad

#62. The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.

Joseph Conrad

#63. It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.

Joseph Conrad

#64. The blight of futility that lies in wait for men's speeches had fallen upon our conversation and made it a thing of empty sounds.

Joseph Conrad

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

Joseph Conrad

#66. The nations of the earth are mostly swayed by fear - fear of the sort that a little cheap oratory turns easily to rage, hate, and violence.

Joseph Conrad

#67. Agent was lying flushed and insensible; the other, bent over his books, was making correct entries of perfectly correct transactions;

Joseph Conrad

#68. We had approached nearer to absolute Truth, which, like Beauty itself, floats elusive, obscure, half submerged, in the silent still waters of mystery.

Joseph Conrad

#69. Faithful death that never forgets in the press of work the most insignificant of its children.

Joseph Conrad

#70. She was highly gifted in the art of human intercourse which consists in delicate shades of self-forgetfulness and in the suggestion of universal comprehension.

Joseph Conrad

#71. But the snags were thick, the water was treacherous and shallow, the boiler seemed indeed to have a sulky devil in it, and thus neither that fireman nor I had any time to peer into our creepy thoughts.

Joseph Conrad

#72. Liberty of imagination should be the most precious possession of a novelist. To try voluntarily to discover the fettering dogmas of its own inspiration, is a trick worthy of humna perverseness which, after inventing an absurdity, endeavours to find for it a pedigree of distinguished ancestors ...

Joseph Conrad

#73. The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

Joseph Conrad

#74. And perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.

Joseph Conrad

#75. The vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.

Joseph Conrad

#76. It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.

Joseph Conrad

#77. The serenity of truth and the peace of death can be only secured through a largeness of contempt embracing all the profitable servitudes of life. He

Joseph Conrad

#78. We live as we dream - alone. While the dream disappears, the life continues painfully.

Joseph Conrad

#79. It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune-the ally of patient Time-that holds an even and scrupulous balance.

Joseph Conrad

#80. I had turned away from the picture and was going back to the world where events move, men change, light flickers, life flows in a clear stream, no matter whether over mud or over stones.

Joseph Conrad

#81. No eloquence could have been so withering to one's belief in mankind as his final burst of sincerity.

Joseph Conrad

#82. All this life, must be life, since it is so much like a dream.

Joseph Conrad

#83. Thinking is the great enemy of perfection. The habit of profound reflection, I am compelled to say, is the most pernicious of all the habits formed by the civilized man.

Joseph Conrad

#84. The condemned social order has not been built up on paper and ink, and I don't fancy that a combination of paper and ink will ever put an end to it.

Joseph Conrad

#85. 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.

Joseph Conrad

#86. Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.

Joseph Conrad

#87. The end (goal) of art is to figure the hidden meaning of things and not their appearance; for in this profound truth lies their true reality, which does not appear in their external outlines.

Joseph Conrad

#88. The practical value of succes depends not a little on the way you look at it.

Joseph Conrad

#89. brooding over the upper reaches, became

Joseph Conrad

#90. This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away. When I had a chance I begged him to try and leave while there was time; I offered to go back with him. And he would say yes, and then he would remain...

Joseph Conrad

#91. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent.

Joseph Conrad

#92. Even extreme grief may ultimately vent
itself in violence
but more generally takes the form of apathy

Joseph Conrad

#93. Don't you know what the police are for, Stevie? They are there so that them as have nothing shouldn't take anything away from them who have.

Joseph Conrad

#94. A Departure, the last professional sight of land, is always good, or at least good enough. For, even if the weather be thick, it does not matter much to a ship having all the open sea before her bows.

Joseph Conrad

#95. 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.

Joseph Conrad

#96. You will learn soon how not to be faint-hearted. A man has got to learn everything
and that's what so many of them youngsters don't understand.

Joseph Conrad

#97. Mr Verloc extended as much recognition to Stevie as a man not particularly fond of animals may give to his wife's beloved cat; and this recognition, benevolent and perfunctory, was essentially of the same quality.

Joseph Conrad

#98. But sometimes, by the deserving and the fortunate, even that task is accomplished. And when it is accomplished - behold! - all the truth of life is there: a moment of vision, a sigh, a smile - and the return to an eternal rest.

Joseph Conrad

#99. Going home must be like going to render an account.

Joseph Conrad

#100. A fool has more ideas than a wise man can foresee.

Joseph Conrad