Quotessence
Home / Authors / Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenHeart Of DarknessLiteratureLifeDarknessSeaIfsHeartKnowsEarthWorldArtExistenceMankindLoveMindDreamHumansJoseph ConradMay

Famous Joseph Conrad Quotes

“Certain streets have an atmosphere of their own, a sort of universal fame and the particular affection of their citizens. One of such streets is the Cannebiere, and the jest: "If Paris had a Cannebiere, it would be a little Marseilles" is the jocular expression of municipal pride. I, too, I have been under the spell. For me it has been a street leading into the unknown.”

IfsLittlesHas BeensBookWould BeCertainStreetsParticularExpressionPrideCitizensFameUniversalAffectionAtmosphereParisSpellsJestMarseille
Book:The Arrow of Gold
Create image

“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see. That — and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm — all you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.”

IfsFeelsTryingAsksWrittenAchieveSucceedDemandTasksEncouragementForgottenDesertCharmGlimpseConsolationWritten Word
Author:Joseph Conrad
Create image

“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. It is as if loneliness were a hard and absolute condition of existence; the envelope of flesh and blood on which our eyes are fixed melts before the outstretched hand, and there remains only the capricious, unconsolable and elusive spirit that no eye can follow, no hand can grasp.”

IfsMenNeedsTryingHardHandsEyeSpiritStarsExistenceSunBloodShareConditionsLonelinessSightAbsolutesRemainsFleshPerceiveFixedIntimateWarmthAnother ManElusiveEnvelopesFlesh And BloodCapriciousMistyWaveringWarmth Of The Sun
Book:Lord Jim
Create image

“What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow men's existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history.”

IfsMenEnoughRealityFormStrongExistenceHistoryNovelPrideShameFellowsConvictionEpisodesDocumentariesFellow ManStrong EnoughSelected
Book:The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad
Create image

“Things and men have always a certain sense, a certain side by which they must be got hold of if one wants to obtain a solid grasp and a perfect command.”

IfsMenWantCertainSidesPerfectKnowledgeCommand
Book:The Complete Novels of Joseph Conrad - All 20 Works in One Premium Edition: Including Unforgettable Titles like Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes and Many More (With Author’s Letters, Memoirs and Critical Essays)
Create image

“You can t, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty. And least of all can you condemn an artist pursuing, however humbly and imperfectly, a creative aim. In that interior world where his thought and his emotions go seeking for the experience of imagined adventures, there are no policemen, no law, no pressure of circumstance or dread of opinion to keep him within bounds. Who then is going to say Nay to his temptations if not his conscience?”

IfsMenWorldCareLawArtistSoundEmotionMoralOpinionCreativeClearAdventureDutyCircumstancesIntegrityConsciencePressureAimBoundsSeekingTemptationDreadInteriorsPolicemenNo Pressure
Book:Lord Jim (Unabridged Deluxe Edition): A Classic Novel of Guilt and Atonement From the Renowned Author of Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, The Secret Agent & Under Western Eyes (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)
Create image

“All one's work might have been better done; but this is a sort of reflection a worker must put aside courageously if he doesn't mean every one of his conceptions to remain forever a private vision, an evanescent reverie.”

IfsMeanHas BeensDoneMightWorkVisionForeverReflectionWorkersConceptionMight Have BeenReverie
Book: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
Create image

“The mysteries of a universe made of drops of fire and clods of mud do not concern us in the least. The fate of humanity condemned ultimately to perish from cold is not worth troubling about. If you take it to heart it becomes an unendurable tragedy. If you believe in improvement you must weep, for the attained perfection must end in cold, darkness and silence. In a dispassionate view the ardour for reform, improvement for virtue, and knowledge, and even for beauty is only a vain sticking up for appearances as though one were anxious about the cut of one's clothes in a community of blind men.”

IfsMenBelieveHeartMadeEndsHumanityUniverseCommunityViewsSilenceDarknessVirtueFireCuttingFateMysteryColdClothesConcernPerfectionTragedyBlindAppearanceImprovementReformVainAnxiousMudIf You BelieveBlind ManUnendurableDispassionate
Book:The Selected Letters of Joseph Conrad
Create image