Quotes of the day
from previous years:
- 2003
- I have never let my schooling get in the way of my education. ~
Mark Twain
- 2004
- The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. ~
Emma Goldman
- 2005
- All idealization makes life poorer. To beautify it is to take away its character of complexity - it is to destroy it. ~
Joseph Conrad
in
The Secret Agent
(born 3 December 1857)
- 2006
- There is no credulity so eager and blind as the credulity of covetousness, which, in its universal extent, measures the moral misery and the intellectual destitution of mankind. ~
Joseph Conrad
- 2007
- All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising, for the edification of mankind, pinned down by the conditions of its existence to the earnest consideration of the most insignificant tides of reality. ~
Joseph Conrad
- 2008
- The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. ~
Joseph Conrad
- 2009
- He who wants to persuade should put his trust, not in the right argument, but in the right word. ~
Joseph Conrad
- 2010
- The changing wisdom of successive generations discards ideas, questions facts, demolishes theories. But the artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom: to that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition ? and, therefore, more permanently enduring. He speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation ? and to the subtle but invincible, conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts: to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity ? the dead to the living and the living to the unborn. ~
Joseph Conrad
in
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
- 2011
- Truth
shall prevail ? don't you know
Magna est veritas
. . . Yes, when it gets a chance. There is a
law
, no doubt ? and likewise a law regulates your
luck
in the throwing of dice. It is not
Justice
? the servant of men, but accident, hazard,
Fortune
? the ally of patient
Time
? that holds an even and scrupulous balance. ~
Joseph Conrad
in
Lord Jim
- 2012
My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the
power
of the written
word
, to make you
hear
, to make you
feel
? it is, before all, to make you
see
.
That ? and no more, and it is everything. If I
succeed
, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm ? all you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of
truth
for which you have forgotten to ask.
|
~
Joseph Conrad
~
in
~
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
~
|
- 2013
- 2014
- 2015
The last
word
is not said, ? probably shall never be said. Are not our
lives
too short for that full utterance which through all our stammerings is of course our only and abiding intention? I have given up
expecting
those last words, whose ring, if they could only be pronounced, would shake both
heaven
and
earth
. There is never
time
to say our last word ? the last word of our
love
, of our
desire
,
faith
,
remorse
, submissions,
revolt
. The heaven and the earth must not be shaken, I suppose ? at least, not by us who
know
so many
truths
about either. My last words about Jim shall be few. I affirm he had achieved
greatness
; but the thing would be dwarfed in the telling, or rather in the
hearing
. Frankly, it is not my words that I mistrust but your
minds
. I could be
eloquent
were I not
afraid
you fellows had starved your
imaginations
to
feed
your
bodies
. I do not mean to be offensive; it is respectable to have no
illusions
? and
safe
? and
profitable
? and dull. Yet you, too, in your time must have known the intensity of
life
, that
light
of glamour created in the shock of trifles, as amazing as the glow of sparks struck from a cold
stone
? and as short-lived, alas!
|
~
Joseph Conrad
~
in
~
Lord Jim
~
|
- 2016
- 2017
A
work
that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of
art
should carry its justification in every line. And art itself may be defined as a single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of
justice
to the visible
universe
, by
bringing to light
the
truth
,
manifold
and
one
, underlying its every aspect. It is an attempt to find in its forms, in its
colours
, in its
light
, in its
shadows
, in the aspects of matter and in the
facts
of
life
, what of each is fundamental, what is
enduring
and
essential
? their one illuminating and convincing
quality
? the very
truth
of their
existence
.
|
~
Joseph Conrad
~
in
~
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
~
|
- 2018
- 2019
I
remember
my
youth
and the
feeling
that will never come back any more ? the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the
sea
, the
earth
, and all
men
; the
deceitful
feeling that lures us on to
joys
, to
perils
, to
love
, to
vain
effort
? to
death
; the triumphant conviction of
strength
, the heat of
life
in the handful of dust, the glow in the
heart
that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires ? and expires, too soon ? too soon before life itself.
|
~
Joseph Conrad
~
|
- 2020
- 2021
Temperament
, whether
individual
or
collective
, is not amenable to
persuasion
.
All
art
, therefore, appeals primarily to the
senses
, and the artistic aim when expressing itself in
written
words
must also make its appeal through the senses, if its high
desire
is to reach the secret spring of responsive
emotions
. It must strenuously
aspire
to the plasticity of
sculpture
, to the colour of
painting
, and to the
magic
suggestiveness of
music
? which is the art of arts. And it is only through complete, unswerving
devotion
to the
perfect
blending of
form
and
substance
; it is only through an unremitting, never-discouraged care for the shape and ring of sentences that an approach can be made to plasticity, to colour; and the light of magic suggestiveness may be brought to play for an evanescent instant over the commonplace surface of words: of the old, old words, worn thin, defaced by ages of careless usage.
|
~
Joseph Conrad
~
in
~
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
~
|
- 2022
- 2023
It's extraordinary how we go through
life
with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant
thoughts
. Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome. Nevertheless, there can be but few of us who had never
known
one of these rare
moments
of
awakening
when we
see
,
hear
,
understand
ever so much ?
everything
? in a flash ? before we fall back again into our agreeable
somnolence
.
|
~
Joseph Conrad
~
in
~
Lord Jim
~
|
- 2024
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Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits. ~
Robert Louis Stevenson
(date of death)
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. ~
Robert Louis Stevenson
(date of death)
- 3 ~
UDScott
23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
- 0, though very good, this one was already used in July 2004 ~
Kalki
00:17, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
- 2
Zarbon
15:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
The truth is that there is no terror untempered by some great moral idea. ~
Jean-Luc Godard
(born December 3, 1930)
All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl. ~
Jean-Luc Godard
.
The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second. ~
Jean-Luc Godard
.
Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. ~
Ozzy Osbourne
- 2
Zarbon
04:09, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
- 2
Kalki
00:53, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
One ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. ~
Joseph Conrad
in
Heart of Darkness
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. ~
Joseph Conrad
It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose. ~
Joseph Conrad
Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love ? and to put its trust in life! ~
Joseph Conrad
I can't tell if a straw ever saved a drowning man, but I know that a mere glance is enough to make despair pause. For in truth we who are creatures of impulse are not creatures of despair. ~
Joseph Conrad
The men who could understand his silence were gone ? those men who knew how to exist beyond the pale of life and within sight of eternity. They had been strong, as those are strong who know neither doubts nor hopes. They had been impatient and enduring, turbulent and devoted, unruly and faithful. Well-meaning people had tried to represent those men as whining over every mouthful of their food; as going about their work in fear of their lives. But in truth they had been men who knew toil, privation, violence, debauchery ? but knew not fear, and had no desire of spite in their hearts. Men hard to manage, but easy to inspire; voiceless men ? but men enough to scorn in their hearts the sentimental voices that bewailed the hardness of their fate. It was a fate unique and their own; the capacity to bear it appeared to them the privilege of the chosen! ~
Joseph Conrad
in
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off. And thus, doubtful of strength to travel so far, we talk a little about the aim ? the aim of art, which, like life itself, is inspiring, difficult ? obscured by mists. It is not in the clear logic of a triumphant conclusion; it is not in the unveiling of one of those heartless secrets which are called the Laws of Nature. It is not less great, but only more difficult. ~
Joseph Conrad
in
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
To arrest, for the space of a breath, the hands busy about the work of the earth, and compel men entranced by the sight of distant goals to glance for a moment at the surrounding vision of form and colour, of sunshine and shadows; to make them pause for a look, for a sigh, for a smile ? such is the aim, difficult and evanescent, and reserved only for a very few to achieve. But sometimes, by the deserving and the fortunate, even that task is accomplished. And when it is accomplished ? behold! ? all the truth of life is there: a moment of vision, a sigh, a smile ? and the return to an eternal rest. ~
Joseph Conrad
in
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
Droll thing life is ? that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself ? that comes too late ? a crop of unextinguishable regrets. I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be. ~
Joseph Conrad
in
Heart of Darkness
Nobody ever comes back from a "missing" ship to tell how hard was the death of the craft, and how sudden and overwhelming the last anguish of her men. Nobody can say with what thoughts, with what regrets, with what words on their lips they died. But there is something fine in the sudden passing away of these hearts from the extremity of struggle and stress and tremendous uproar?from the vast, unrestful rage of the surface to the profound peace of the depths, sleeping untroubled since the beginning of ages. ~
Joseph Conrad