Zitate von Joseph Conrad

„Wir gehen mit Worten Kompromisse ein. Es hilft uns auch nicht weiter. Es ist wie ein Wald in dem niemand den Weg kennt. Man ist verloren, während man noch ruft: "Ich bin gerettet".“

—  Joseph Conrad

„Ich habe die See zu lange gekannt, um an ihren Respekt für Anständigkeit zu glauben.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Taifun

Taifun
"And yet I have known the sea too long to believe in its respect for decency. An elemental force is ruthlessly frank." - Typhoon (1902) books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=srDHBuZRreEC&pg=PA156&dq=respect

„Only a seaman realises to what great extent an entire ship reflects the personality and ability of one individual, her Commanding Officer. To a landsman, this is not understandable—and sometimes it is even difficult for us to comprehend—but it is so! A ship at sea is a different world in herself, and in consideration of the protracted and distant operations of the fleet units, the Navy must place great power, responsibility and trust in the hands of those leaders chosen for command. In each ship there is one man who, in the hour of emergency or peril at sea, can turn to no other man. There is one who alone is ultimately responsible for the safe navigation, engineering performance, accurate gunfire and morale of the ship. He is the Commanding Officer. He is the ship. This is the most difficult and demanding assignment in the Navy. There is not an instant during his tour as Commanding Officer that he can escape the grasp of command responsibility. His privileges, in view of his obligations, are almost ludicrously small; nevertheless, this is the spur which has given the Navy its great leaders. It is a duty which richly deserves the highest, time-honoured title of the seafaring world—Captain.“

—  Joseph Conrad

Command at Sea: the Prestige, Privilege and Burden of Command

„The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch The Mirror of the Sea

Quelle: The Mirror of the Sea (1906), Ch. 35
Kontext: For all that has been said of the love that certain natures (on shore) have professed to feel for it, for all the celebrations it had 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.

„Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Chance

Quelle: Chance (1913) part II, Ch. 5

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

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Under Western Eyes

Pt. II, ch. 4
Quelle: Under Western Eyes (1911)

„It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch An Outcast of the Islands

Quelle: An Outcast of the Islands (1896), Pt. 3, Ch. 2; possibly an adaptation of a Polish proverb, "Ten się nie myli, kto nic nie robi" — "One is not wrong, who does nothing."

„We live as we dream--alone….“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Herz der Finsternis

Quelle: Heart of Darkness

„It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Herz der Finsternis

Quelle: Heart of Darkness

„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

Quelle: The Secret Sharer and other stories

„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.“

—  Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

Variante: My task is to make you hear, to make you feel, and, above all, to make you see. That is all, and it is everything.
Quelle: Lord Jim

„I don't like work--no man does--but I like what is in the work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself not for others--what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Herz der Finsternis

Quelle: Heart of Darkness

„All idealization makes life poorer. To beautify it is to take away its character of complexity — it is to destroy it.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch The Secret Agent

Quelle: The Secret Agent (1907), Ch. 3
Kontext: All idealization makes life poorer. To beautify it is to take away its character of complexity — it is to destroy it. Leave that to the moralists, my boy. History is made by men, but they do not make it in their heads. The ideas that are born in their consciousness play an insignificant part in the march of events. History is dominated and determined by the tool and the production — by the force of economic conditions. Capitalism has made socialism, and the laws made by the capitalist for the protection of property are responsible for anarchism. No one can tell what form the social organisation may take in the future. Then why indulge in prophetic phantasies? At best they can only interpret the mind of the prophet, and can have no objective value. Leave that pastime to the moralists, my boy.

„All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch The Secret Agent

Quelle: The Secret Agent (1907), Ch. 13
Kontext: All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force. And madness and despair are a force. And force is a crime in the eyes of the fools, the weak and the silly who rule the roost. You are mediocre. Verloc, whose affair the police has managed to smother so nicely, was mediocre. And the police murdered him. He was mediocre. Everybody is mediocre. Madness and despair! Give me that for a lever, and I'll move the world. Ossipon, you have my cordial scorn. You are incapable of conceiving even what the fat-fed citizen would call a crime. You have no force.

„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, buch Under Western Eyes

Pt. I
Under Western Eyes (1911)
Kontext: 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.

„Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Herz der Finsternis

Quelle: Heart of Darkness

„No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Herz der Finsternis

Quelle: Heart of Darkness

„Facing it — always facing it — that's the way to get through.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Taifun

Typhoon (1902), Ch. 5

„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 inextinguishable regrets.“

—  Joseph Conrad, buch Herz der Finsternis

Quelle: Heart of Darkness