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The ethical view of the universe involves us in so many cruel and absurd contradictions that I have come to suspect that the aim of creation cannot be ethical at all.

Joseph Conrad

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

Chance Discover Reality Work Yourself
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
Your strength is just an accident owed to the weakness of others.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Accident Strength Weakness Yourself
The discovery of America was the occasion of the greatest outburst of cruelty and reckless greed known in history.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Cruelty Discover Greatness Greedy History Occasion
Everything belonged to him–but that was a trifle. The thing to know was what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Darkness Himself Power
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
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
There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Charm Life Sea
Kisses are the remnants of paradise.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Kiss One Liner Paradise
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

Audacity Belief Character Essence Expression Life Man Safety Surround
It is respectable to have no illusions, and safe, and profitable and dull.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Illusion Profit Respect Safety
The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Friendship Human Man Nature Support
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
I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Death Excitement Imagination Yourself
We live as we dream – alone. While the dream disappears, the life continues painfully.
JOSEPH CONRAD

Alone Dreams Life Live Pain
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

The ethical view of the universe involves us in so many cruel and absurd contradictions that I have come to suspect that the aim of creation cannot be ethical at all.

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The ethical view of the universe involves us in so many cruel and absurd contradictions that I have come to suspect that the aim of creation cannot be ethical at all.

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Popular Authors

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