Joseph Conrad Quotes on Man (28 Quotes)

The mind of man is capable of anything

The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver - over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple, over the great river I could see through a sombre gap glittering, glittering, as it flowed broadly by without a murmur. All this was great, expectant, mute, while the man jabbered about himself.

All that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.

I saw him open his mouth wide. . . as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him.

In some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him--all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is detestable. And it has a fascination, too, which goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination--you know.

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.

An artist is a man of action, whether he creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of a complicated situation.

It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune--the ally of patient Time--that holds an even and scrupulous balance.

As in political so in literary action a man wins friends for himself mostly by the passion of his prejudices and the consistent narrowness of his outlook.

For all that has been said of the love that certain natures (on shore) have professed for it, for all the celebrations it has been the object of in prose and song, the sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.

All a man can betray is his conscience.

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.

You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.

A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries to climb out into the air as inexperienced people endeavor to do, he drowns.

I don't like work... but I like what is in work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - which no other man can ever know.

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.

Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love - and to put its trust in life.

Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade, since it consists pricipally of dealing with men.

The mind of man is capable of anythingbecause everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future.

A man is a worker. If he is not that he is nothing.

The last thing a woman will consent to discover in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage.

You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.

I take it that what all men are really after is some form or perhaps only some formula of peace.

I had ambition not only to go farther than any man had ever been before, but as far as it was possible for a man to go.

God is for men and religion is for women.

You can't, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty.

You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as his friends.

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.