Author

Joseph Conrad

36 quotations

About Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and – though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties – he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature.

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Topics: Truth Art Strength Courage Trust Fear
How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do you shoot a specter through the heart, slash off its spectral head, take it by its spectral throat?
Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.
The last thing a woman will consent to discover in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage.
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 …
Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.
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.

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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.
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
Who knows what true loneliness is - not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.