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Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.

Joseph Conrad

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Argument Himself Power Right Trust World
Nowhere else than upon the sea do the days, weeks, and months fall away quicker into the past. They seem to be left astern as easily as the light air-bubbles in the swirls of the ship’s wake.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Day Easy Fall Quick Sea Wake Up
You know I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies – which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world – what I want to forget.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Death Forget Hate Mortal Myself Simplicity World
A writing may be lost; a lie may be written; but what the eye has seen is truth and remains in the mind!
JOSEPH CONRAD

Eyes Lost Lying See Truth Wind Writing
One must explore deep and believe the incredible to find the new particles of truth floating in an ocean of insignificance.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Believe Exploration Ocean Oneself Particle Truth
It would take too long to explain the intimate alliance of contradictions in human nature which makes love itself wear at times the desperate shape of betrayal. And perhaps there is no possible explanation.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Betrayal Desperate Explanation Human Love Nature Possible Time
To be busy with material affairs is the best preservative against reflection, fears, doubts, all these things which stand in the way of achievement. I suppose a fellow proposing to cut his throat would experience a sort of relief while occupied in stropping his razor carefully.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Achievement Affair Busy Doubt Experience Fear Material Reflection
It occurred to me that my speech or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Action Myself Silence Talk
Everybody had to be thoroughly understood before being accepted.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Acceptance Discover Patience Right Understand
We can never cease to be ourselves.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Be Yourself One Liner Ourselves
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

Bilnd Faith Fear Mystery Soul Struggle
You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Enemy Friendship Judgement Man
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

Appearance Different Earth Yourself
Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Art Aspiration Carry Condition Humble Justice Work
I like what is in the work — the chance to find yourself.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Discover Myself Work
We live as we dream – alone.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Alone Dreams Live One Liner
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Alone Belief Evil Man Necessary Quite Source Wickedness
It is not the clear-sighted who rule the world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Accomplishment Achievement Blessing Greatness Rule Warm World
That’s why love is so inseparable from any talk about truth and death, because we know that love is fundamentally a death of an old self that was isolated and the emergence of a new self now entangled with another self, the self that you fall in love with.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Death Fall In Love Fundamental Love Separate Talk Truth
But it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker – may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling!
JOSEPH CONRAD

Earth Light Live Old Run
What makes mankind tragic is not that they are the victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Conscience Kind Man Nature Tragedy Victim
A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Interest Sympathy Writing
Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Art Imagination Invention Life Master
In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds of our normal sensibility.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Beyond Carry Move Normal Order Ourselves
All a man can betray is his conscience.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Betrayal Conscience Himself Rule
You can’t, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Clear Integrity Man Moral Responsibility Sound
Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory, and the truth of every passion wants some pretence to make it live.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Live Memories Passion Pretend Truth

Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.

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Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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