There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea. – Joseph Conrad
The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil water-way leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky — seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness. – Joseph Conrad
I take it that what all men are really after is some form or perhaps only some formula of peace. – Joseph Conrad
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
Jones Very is gone into the multitude as solitary as Jesus. In dismissing him, I seem to have discharged an arrow into the heart of Society. Wherever that young enthusiast goes, he will astonish and disconcert men by dividing for them the cloud that covers the gulf in man. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1838 journal, about Jones Very