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Let them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I sank -- but that's not the same thing.

Joseph Conrad

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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
Meant
Didn
Mean
Sank
Thing
Drown
Think
Suicidal
Thinking
Swim
Till
Liked

More quotes by Joseph Conrad

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He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away.
Joseph Conrad
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Being myself animated by feelings of affection toward my fellowmen, I am saddened by the modern system of advertising. Whatever evidence it offers of enterprise, ingenuity, impudence, and resource in certain individuals, it proves to my mind the wide prevalence of that form of mental degradation which is called gullibility.
Joseph Conrad
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I like what is in the work -- the chance to find yourself.
Joseph Conrad
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Ah! These commercial interests -- spoiling the finest life under the sun. Why must the sea be used for trade -- and for war as well?...It would have been so much nicer just to sail about, with here and there a port and a bit of land to stretch one's legs on, buy a few books and get a change of cooking for a while.
Joseph Conrad
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There is a kind way of assisting our fellow-creatures which is enough to break their hearts while it saves their outer envelope.
Joseph Conrad
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Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through the dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one's very heart - its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life.
Joseph Conrad
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I take it that what all men are really after is some form or perhaps only some formula of peace.
Joseph Conrad
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I do not know whether I have been a good seaman, but I know I have been a very faithful one.
Joseph Conrad
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A train of thought is never false. The falsehood lies deep in the necessities of existence.
Joseph Conrad
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The condemned social order has not been built up on paper and ink, and I don't fancy that a combination of paper and ink will ever put an end to it.
Joseph Conrad
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The conquest of the earth... is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only... not a sentimental pretence but an idea.
Joseph Conrad
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To be busy with material affairs is the best preservative against reflection, fears, doubts ... all these things which stand in the way of achievement. I suppose a fellow proposing to cut his throat would experience a sort of relief while occupied in stropping his razor carefully.
Joseph Conrad
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You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget.
Joseph Conrad
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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
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Necessity, they say, is mother of invention, but fear, too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions.
Joseph Conrad
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It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.
Joseph Conrad
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A ship in dock, surrounded by quays and the walls of warehouses, has the appearance of a prisoner meditating upon freedom in the sadness of a free spirit put under restraint.
Joseph Conrad
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You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
Joseph Conrad
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Yet, when one thinks of it, diplomacy without force is a but a rotten reed to lean upon.
Joseph Conrad
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You can't, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty.
Joseph Conrad