The East Wind, an interloper in the dominions of Westerly Weather, is an impassive-faced tyrant with a sharp poniard held behind his back for a treacherous stab. – Joseph Conrad
The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death. – Joseph Conrad
It is respectable to have no illusions, and safe, and profitable and dull. – Joseph Conrad
You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends. – Joseph Conrad
There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea. – Joseph Conrad
It is very difficult to be wholly joyous or wholly sad on this earth. The comic, when it is human, soon takes upon itself a face of pain; and some of our grieves… have their source in weaknesses which must be recognized with smiling compassion as the common inheritance of us all. – Joseph Conrad
A mans most open actions have a secret side to them. – Joseph Conrad
Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys. – Joseph Conrad
Resignation, not mystic, not detached, but resignation open-eyed, conscious, and informed by love, is the only one of our feelings for which it is impossible to become a sham. – Joseph Conrad
They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience. – Joseph Conrad
It is when we try to grapple with another mans 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. – Joseph Conrad
As to honor – you know – its a very fine mediaeval inheritance which women never got hold of. It wasnt theirs. – Joseph Conrad
Truth of a modest sort I can promise you, and also sincerity. That complete, praiseworthy sincerity which, while it delivers one into the hands of ones enemies, is as likely as not to embroil one with ones friends. – Joseph Conrad
A mans real life is that accorded to him in the thoughts of other men by reason of respect or natural love. – Joseph Conrad
Only in mens imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life. – Joseph Conrad
A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth. – Joseph Conrad
To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot. – Joseph Conrad
It is a maudlin and indecent verity that comes out through the strength of wine. – Joseph Conrad
Some great men owe most of their greatness to the ability of detecting in those they destine for their tools the exact quality of strength that matters for their work. – 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
