Joseph Conrad Quotes & Sayings (Page 5)

“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 one's enemies, is as likely as not to embroil one with one's friends.”

“For all that has been said of the love that certain natures (on shore) have professed for it, for all the celebrations it has been the object of in prose and song, the sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.”

“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.”

“Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.”

“It is respectable to have no illusions, and safe, and profitable and dull.”

“You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.”

“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.”

“Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.”

“Nations it may be have fashioned their Governments, but the Governments have paid them back in the same coin.”

“A modern fleet of ships does not so much make use of the sea as exploit a highway.”