Quote

The atmosphere of officialdom would kill anything that breathes the air of human endeavour, would extinguish hope and fear alike in the supremacy of paper and ink.

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
Fear
Bureaucracy
Anything
Alike
Human
Atmosphere
Humans
Breathe
Extinguish
Would
Air
Breathes
Kill
Ink
Paper
Endeavour
Hope
Supremacy

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In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent.
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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.
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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.
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His very existence was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. He was an insoluble problem. It was inconceivable how he had existed, how he had succeeded in getting so far, how he had managed to remain -- why he did not instantly disappear.
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A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea.
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Who would care to question the ground of forgiveness or compassion.
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The ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by much adulation
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A task, any task, undertaken in an adventurous spirit acquires the merit of romance.
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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.
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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.
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the mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as the future
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We couldn't understand because we were too far... and could not remember because we were traveling in the night of first ages, those ages that had gone, leaving hardly a sign... and no memories.
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It would take too long to explain the intimate alliance of contradictions in human nature which makes love itself wear at times the desperate shape of betrayal. And perhaps there is no possible explanation.
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I can't tell if a straw ever saved a drowning man, but I know that a mere glance is enough to make dspair pause. For in truth, we who are creatures of impulse, are creatures of despair.
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The blight of futility that lies in wait for men's speeches had fallen upon our conversation and made it a thing of empty sounds.
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It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.
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It is my belief no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self knowledge.
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A train of thought is never false. The falsehood lies deep in the necessities of existence.
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The good author is he who contemplates without marked joy or excessive sorrow the adventures of his soul amongst criticisms.
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Let a fool be made serviceable according to his folly.
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