Joseph Conrad (1857–1924,) born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, was a Polish-born British novelist. Conrad drew upon his own experiences at sea to write many novels that explored the vulnerability and corruptibility of human nature. He was a central figure in the development of literary modernism.
Born in the Polish town of Berdychiv (then under Russian rule, but now situated in Ukraine,) Conrad was the son of revolutionaries who were sent into political exile. Orphaned at age 11, Conrad was driven by a desire to see the world and went to sea at age 15.
After 20 years at sea, Conrad settled in England, anglicized his name, and began writing fiction based on his significant experiences at sea. He became a British citizen in 1886. Even if he never spoke English fluently, he wrote in it.
Conrad’s notable works include Lord Jim (1900,) Heart of Darkness (1902,) Nostromo (1904,) and The Secret Agent (1907.) His books sold poorly, and his life as a novelist was a struggle of ill health and shaky finances. His career changed with the publication of Chance (1914) and Victory (1915,) two novels that brought him huge popular success and widespread recognition as one of England’s leading fiction writers.
Heart of Darkness gained a new audience through Francis Ford Coppola’s classic war film Apocalypse Now (1979.) Heart of Darkness is based on Conrad’s firsthand exposure to European colonial exploitation during an 1890 riverboat voyage up the Congo River.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Joseph Conrad
Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality. I have been for many years a teacher of languages. It is an occupation which at length becomes fatal to whatever share of imagination, observation, and insight an ordinary person may be heir to. To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Words
God is for men and religion for women.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Religion
Any fool can carry on, but only the wise man knows how to shorten sail.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Wisdom
Above all, we must forgive the unhappy souls who have elected to make the pilgrimage on foot, who skirt the shore and look uncomprehendingly upon the horror of the struggle, the joy of victory, the profound hopelessness of the vanquished
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Unhappiness
Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Imagination, Existence
Who would care to question the ground of forgiveness or compassion?
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Forgiveness
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.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Death, Dying, Nature
I dare say I am compelled, unconsciously compelled, now to write volume after volume, as in past years I was compelled to go to sea, voyage after voyage. Leaves must follow upon each other as leagues used to follow in the days gone by, on and on to the appointed end, which, being truth itself, is one—one for all men and for all occupations.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Authors & Writing
To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Existence, Aspirations, Planning
The question is not how to get cured, but how to live.
—Joseph Conrad
Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Vanity, Memory, The Past
The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Crime
A man’s real life is that accorded to him in the thoughts of other men by reason of respect or natural love.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: People
Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Artists, Arts, Art
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
Topics: One liners, Loyalty, Betrayal
It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.
—Joseph Conrad
Hang ideas! They are tramps, vagabonds, knocking at the back-door of your mind, each taking a little of your substance, each carrying away some crumb of that belief in a few simple notions you must cling to if you want to live decently and would like to die easy!
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Ideas
What all men are really after is some form, or perhaps only some formula, of peace.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Optimism, Man, Aspirations, Serenity, Positive Attitudes, Relaxation, Motivation, Peace
He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Words, Arguments, Persuasion
Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: World
Felicity, felicity … is quaffed out of a golden cup … the flavour is with you alone, and you can make it as intoxicating as you please.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Confidence, Self-reliance
There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: The Military, Navy, Army
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
Topics: Fear, Anxiety, Secrets of Success
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
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.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Words
The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Water
The revolutionary spirit is mighty convenient in this, that it frees one from all scruples as regards ideas. Its hard absolute optimism is repulsive to my mind by the menace of fanaticism and intolerance it contains. No doubt one should smile at these things; but, imperfect Esthete, I am no better Philosopher. All claim to special righteousness awakens in me that scorn and anger from which a philosophical mind should be free.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Revolutionaries, Revolutions, Revolution
To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Language
Criticism: that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters.
—Joseph Conrad
Topics: Criticism, Critics, Garden
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
Topics: Service
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