Joseph Conrad Quotes About Literature

Quotes about: Literature

• 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.

  Joseph Conrad

  Inspirational, Being Yourself, Work

  Heart of Darkness ch. 1 (1902)

• The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.

  Joseph Conrad

  Power, Sea, Generosity

  Joseph Conrad (2016). “The Mirror of the Sea”, p.118, Xist Publishing

• In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds of our normal sensibility.

  Joseph Conrad

  Moving, Order, Literature

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “The Napoleonic Novels: The Rover & Suspense: From the Renowned Author of The Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)”, p.400, e-artnow

• 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.

  Joseph Conrad

  Peace, Mean, Racism

  Heart of Darkness ch. 1 (1902)

• All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

  Joseph Conrad

  Ambition, Feet, Literature

  Some Reminiscences (1912; in USA entitled "A Personal Record") p. 19

• The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement - but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims.

  Joseph Conrad

  Nature, Intelligent, Revolutionary Leaders

  Under Western Eyes pt. 2, ch. 3 (1911)

• Only in men's imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.

  Joseph Conrad

  Life, Art, Writing

  Some Reminiscences ch. 1 (1912)

• 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.

  Joseph Conrad

  Song, Art, History

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “Joseph Conrad’s Sea Tales - Premium Collection: An Outcast of the Islands, The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’, A Smile of Fortune, Typhoon and more: Classics of World Literature from One of the Greatest English Novelists (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)”, p.1238, e-artnow

• A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries to climb out into the air as inexperienced people endeavor to do, he drowns.

  Joseph Conrad

  Love, Dream, Fall

  Lord Jim ch. 20 (1900)

• It is not the clear-sighted who rule the world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog.

  Joseph Conrad

  Blessed, Fog, Achievement

  1915 Victory, author's note.

• 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

  Life, Men, Here And There

  Joseph Conrad (1905). “Lord Jim”, p.31, McClure, Phillips & Company

• 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

  Hands, Promise, Enemy

  Joseph Conrad (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Joseph Conrad (Illustrated)”, p.5375, Delphi Classics

• You can't breathe dead hippo waking, sleeping, and eating, and at the same time keep your precarious grip on existence.

  Joseph Conrad

  Sleep, Literature, Waking

  Joseph Conrad (2012). “Heart of Darkness: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.53, Penguin

• Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.

  Joseph Conrad

  Enemy, Literature, Action

  Nostromo (1904) pt. 1, ch. 6

• Resignation, not mystic, not detached, but resignation open-eyed, conscious, and informed by love, is the only one of our feelings for which it is impossible to become a sham.

  Joseph Conrad

  Love Is, Feelings, Literature

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “Joseph Conrad’s Sea Tales - Premium Collection: An Outcast of the Islands, The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’, A Smile of Fortune, Typhoon and more: Classics of World Literature from One of the Greatest English Novelists (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)”, p.1118, e-artnow

• Some great men owe most of their greatness to the ability of detecting in those they destine for their tools the exact quality of strength that matters for their work.

  Joseph Conrad

  Business, Greatness, Men

  Joseph Conrad (1905). “Lord Jim”, p.362, McClure, Phillips & Company

• As in political so in literary action a man wins friends for himself mostly by the passion of his prejudices and the consistent narrowness of his outlook.

  Joseph Conrad

  Passion, Winning, Men

  Joseph Conrad (2005). “A Personal Record: Some Reminiscences”, p.19, Cosimo, Inc.

• Going home must be like going to render an account.

  Joseph Conrad

  Home, Literature, Accounts

  Joseph Conrad (1905). “Lord Jim”, p.207, McClure, Phillips & Company

• A modern fleet of ships does not so much make use of the sea as exploit a highway.

  Joseph Conrad

  Sea, Doe, Use

  Joseph Conrad (2016). “The Mirror of the Sea”, p.64, Xist Publishing

• As to honor - you know - it's a very fine mediaeval inheritance which women never got hold of. It wasn't theirs.

  Joseph Conrad

  Women, Honor, Inheritance

  Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford (1923). “Chance”

• Don't you forget what's divine in the Russian soul and that's resignation.

  Joseph Conrad

  Soul, Literature, Forget

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “Under Western Eyes (Unabridged Deluxe Edition): An Intriguing Tale of Espionage and Betrayal in Czarist Russia From the Renowned Author of Heart of Darkness, Nostromo & The Secret Agent (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)”, p.18, e-artnow

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

  Joseph Conrad

  Men, Keeping Secrets, Literature

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “Joseph Conrad Ultimate Collection: 18 Novels, 20+ Short Stories, Letters & Memoirs: Including Classics like Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Duel, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Victory, The Shadow-Line & Under Western Eyes”, p.2311, e-artnow

• Nations it may be have fashioned their Governments, but the Governments have paid them back in the same coin.

  Joseph Conrad

  Government, Coins, Literature

  Joseph Conrad (2016). “Under Western Eyes”, p.25, Joseph Conrad

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

  Joseph Conrad

  Enlightenment, Literature, Path

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “Complete Short Stories of Joseph Conrad (Including His Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays: Unforgettable Tales like Heart of Darkness, Point of Honor, Falk, Secret Sharer, The Return & Freya of Seven Isles”, p.1325, e-artnow

• A man's real life is that accorded to him in the thoughts of other men by reason of respect or natural love.

  Joseph Conrad

  Love, Real, Men

  Under Western Eyes pt. 1, ch. 1 (1911)

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