Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conradwas a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. He joined the British merchant marine in 1878, and was granted British nationality in 1886. Though he did not speak English fluently until he was in his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst...
NationalityPolish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth3 December 1857
CountryPoland
What all men are really after is some form, or perhaps only some formula, of peace.
I had ambition not only to go farther than any man had ever been before, but as far as it was possible for a man to go.
Words, as is well known, are great foes of reality
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.
It is respectable to have illusions - and safe - and profitable, and dull
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.
He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was it!
He remembered that she was pretty, and, more, that she had a special grace in the intimacy of life. She had the secret of individuality which excites--and escapes.
It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune--the ally of patient Time--that holds an even and scrupulous balance.
What makes mankind tragic is not that they are the victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it.
The humblest craft that floats makes its appeal to a seaman by the faithfulness of her life.
There is something haunting in the light of the moon.
The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket.
Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas, Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please.