Quote

Criticism, that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters.

Joseph Conrad

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Joseph Conrad
Age: 66 †
Born: 1857
Born: December 3
Died: 1924
Died: August 3
Author
Autobiographer
Essayist
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Berdichev
Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski
Personal
Fine
Critics
Letters
Criticism
Garden
Flower
Expression

More quotes by Joseph Conrad

Image
The hair of his face, on the contrary, carroty and flaming, resembled a growth of copper wire clipped short to the line of the lip while, no matter how close he shaved, fiery metallic gleams passed, when he moved his head, over the surface of his cheeks.
Joseph Conrad
Image
A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Do not talk to me of Archimedes' lever. He was an absent-minded person with a mathematical imagination. Mathematics commands my respect, but I have no use for engines. Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Danger lies in the writer becoming the victim of his own exaggeration, losing the exact notion of sincerity, and in the end coming to despise truth itself as something too cold, too blunt for his purpose -- as, in fact, not good enough for his insistent emotion. From laughter and tears the descent is easy to sniveling and giggles.
Joseph Conrad
Image
The artist in his calling of interpreter creates because he must. He is so much of a voice that, for him, silence is like death
Joseph Conrad
Image
Books may be written in all sorts of places. Verbal inspiration may enter the berth of a mariner on board a ship frozen fast in a river in the middle of a town.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Nations it may be have fashioned their Governments, but the Governments have paid them back in the same coin.
Joseph Conrad
Image
I am afraid that if you want to go down into history you'll have to do something for it.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence--but more generally takes the form of apathy
Joseph Conrad
Image
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 of power.
Joseph Conrad
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.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Necessity, they say, is mother of invention, but fear, too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions.
Joseph Conrad
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.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Kisses are the remnants of paradise.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you, smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, Come and find out.
Joseph Conrad
Image
You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
Joseph Conrad
Image
It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.
Joseph Conrad
Image
The last thing a woman will consent to in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off.
Joseph Conrad
Image
Yet, when one thinks of it, diplomacy without force is a but a rotten reed to lean upon.
Joseph Conrad