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Link	Quote	Stars	Tags	Author
afe3e16	He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable.			Joseph Conrad
e53937c	And suddenly I rejoiced in the great security of the sea as compared with the unrest of the land, in my choice of that untempted life presenting no disquieting problems, invested with an elementary moral beauty by the absolute straightforwardness of its appeal and by the singleness of its purpose.		the-secret-sharer security sea ocean	Joseph Conrad
b709a6e	I remembered the old doctor, - "It would be interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals, on the spot." I felt I was becoming scientifically interesting."		mankind humanity science	Joseph Conrad
e42f7ae	And after some talk we agreed that the wisdom of rats had been grossly overrated, being in fact no greater than that of men.			Joseph Conrad
7217ecb	I thought his memory was like the other memories of the dead that accumulate in every man's life,--a vague impress on the brain of shadows that had fallen on it in their swift and final passage. . .			Joseph Conrad
46c6172	This mournful and restless sound was a fit accompaniment to my meditations.		suicide mourning depression empathy sadness music heartbreak heart love mournful ruminating tradgedy lost-love thinking regret lost nostalgia	Joseph Conrad
7e2900c	Or you may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds. Then the earth for you is only a standing place- whether to be like this is your loss or your gain I won't pretend to say.		deafness naivety blindness numb deaf	Joseph Conrad
5798f29	In some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him--all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is detestable. And it has a fascination, too, which goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination--you know.			Joseph Conrad
9bdcf52	The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse.			Joseph Conrad
41c18b0	The wilderness] had caressed him, and--lo!--he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.			Joseph Conrad
77a317d	Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, but fear too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions." "Nice little saloon, isn't it" I said, as if noticing it for the first time. "At noon I gave no orders for change of course, and the mates whiskers grew much concerned and seemed to be offering themselves to my unduly notice."			Joseph Conrad
62c3728	It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun.			Joseph Conrad
c0b629b	I have been very happy--very fortunate--very proud,' she went on. 'Too fortunate. Too happy for a little while. And now I am unhappy for--for life.			Joseph Conrad
22bf920	Oh the glamour of youth! Oh the fire of it, more dazzling than the flames of the burning ship, throwing a magic light on the wide earth, leaping audaciously to the sky, presently to be quenched by time, more cruel, more pitiless, more bitter than the sea--and like the flames of the burning ship surrounded by an impenetrable night.		voyages	Joseph Conrad
0b21892	She was engaged in the task of defending her position in life," said Heyst. "It's a very respectable task."			Joseph Conrad
c6371fa	An appeal to me in this fiendish row - is there? Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced.			Joseph Conrad
a68f48b	The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to...		injustice politics western-society imperialism tyranny	Joseph Conrad
a977fee	There is a weird power in a spoken word.		words power	Joseph Conrad
4d1578e	Often far away there I thought of these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant. Not many of those she looked at ever saw her again--not half, by a long way.			Joseph Conrad
0883066	The NELLIE, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide. The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space ..			Joseph Conrad
b235650	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.		racism	Joseph Conrad
37df82a	A certain simplicity of thought is common to serene souls at both ends of the social scale.		simplicity	Joseph Conrad
386561c	They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - a..			Joseph Conrad
975cd68	Avoid irritation more than exposure to the sun...In the tropics one must before everything keep calm.' . . .			Joseph Conrad
d2ec05f	He was ruined in every way, but a man possessed of passion is not a bankrupt in life.			Joseph Conrad
8daf644	The terrosirt and the policeman both come form the same basket. Revolution, legality - countermoves in the same game; forms of idleness at bottom identical.			Joseph Conrad
3e9bff0	Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire.			Joseph Conrad
7c9aa75	To break up the superstition and worship of legality should be our aim. Nothing would please me more than to see Inspector Heat and his likes take to shooting us down in broad daylight with the approval of the public. Half our battle would be won then; the desintegration of the old morality would have set in in its very temple. That is what you ought to aim at. But you revolutionists will never understand that. You plan the future, you lose..			Joseph Conrad
18f477e	Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of overschadowed distances. [...] And this stillness of life did not in the ..		nature	Joseph Conrad
8aaf2aa	Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there..		life hypocrisy thinking	Joseph Conrad
7bfbaaf	To the destruction of what is.			Joseph Conrad
39c858f	We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, of an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet. We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toilo. But suddenly, as we struggled round a bend, there would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet..		humanity	Joseph Conrad
fb934e3	A duel, whether regarded as a ceremony in the cult of honour, or even when reduced in its moral essence to a form of manly sport, demands a perfect singleness of intention, a homicidal austerity of mood. [The duel]			Joseph Conrad
42d84a6	No man engaged in a work he does not like can preserve many saving illusions about himself. The distaste, the absence of glamour, extend from the occupation to the personality. It is only when our appointed activities seem by a lucky accident to obey the particular earnestness of our temperament that we can taste the comfort of complete self-deception.		idolatry job	Joseph Conrad
7035b42	The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.			Joseph Conrad
c7e158c	The fascination of the abomination.			Joseph Conrad
93c8777	The man who can't do most things and won't do the rest			Joseph Conrad
f80fd53	Perverse] unreason has its own logical processes			Joseph Conrad
50548b9	If anybody had ever struggled with a soul, I am the man			Joseph Conrad
d63f455	I am stupid, am I not? What more can I want? If you ask them who is brave--who is true--who is just--who is it they would trust with their lives?--they would say, Tuan Jim. And yet they can never know the real, real truth....		secret anxiety-disorders cowardly emotional-wounds monster-under-the-bed sinful-nature why-we-need-jesus wounded-souls guilty-conscience monsters-of-men wounds-to-the-heart haunting haunted self-hate hypocrisy burden ptsd	Joseph Conrad
9c410ad	in our own hearts we trust for our salvation, in the men that surround us, in the sights that fill our eyes, in the sounds that fill our ears, and in the air that fill our lungs.			Joseph Conrad
ed56e0a	It was one of those dewy, clear, starry nights, oppressing our spirit, crushing our pride, by the brilliant evidence of the awful loneliness, of the hopeless obscure insignificance of our globe lost in the splendid revelation of a glittering, soulless universe.			Joseph Conrad
c94b74d	Don't be too sure,' he continued. "The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too.' 'Hanged himself! Why, in God's name?' I cried. He kept on looking out watchfully. 'Who knows? The sun too much for him, or the country perhaps." --			Joseph Conrad
f873af6	It is this country that is dangerous, with her idealistic conception of legality. The social spirit of this people is wrapped up in scrupulous prejudices and that is fatal to our work.. You talk of England being our only refuge! So much the worse. What do we want with refuges ? Here you talk, print, plot, and do nothing.			Joseph Conrad

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