Quotes by Conrad, Joseph

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

Conrad, Joseph on sea   

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"A man's most open actions have a secret side to them."

Conrad, Joseph on secrets   

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"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."

Conrad, Joseph on sincerity   

"They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience."

Conrad, Joseph on betrayal
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"Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love -- and to put its trust in life."

Conrad, Joseph on trust
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"The East Wind, an interloper in the dominions of Westerly Weather, is an impassive-faced tyrant with a sharp poniard held behind his back for a treacherous stab."

Conrad, Joseph on wind   

"The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death."

Conrad, Joseph on wind   

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"It is a maudlin and indecent verity that comes out through the strength of wine."

Conrad, Joseph on wine   

"I dare say I am compelled, unconsciously compelled, now to write volume after volume, as in past years I was compelled to go to sea, voyage after voyage. Leaves must follow upon each other as leagues used to follow in the days gone by, on and on to the appointed end, which, being truth itself, is one -- one for all men and for all occupations."

Conrad, Joseph on wordiness   

"Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality."

Conrad, Joseph on words
3 fans of this quote   

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"A word carries far -- very far -- deals destruction through time as the bullets go flying through space."

Conrad, Joseph on words   

"I don't like work... but I like what is in work -- the chance to find yourself. Your own reality -- for yourself, not for others -- which no other man can ever know."

Conrad, Joseph on work   

"A man is a worker. If he is not that he is nothing."

Conrad, Joseph on work   

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"I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more --the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort --to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires --and expires, too soon, too soon --before life itself."

Conrad, Joseph on youth
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"Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it."

Conrad, Joseph on courage
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"History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird."

Conrad, Joseph on crafts   

"Criticism, that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters."

Conrad, Joseph on criticism   

"I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat."

Conrad, Joseph on death