Joseph Conrad

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.

Perhaps life is just that... a dream and a fear.

There are men here and there to whom the whole of life is like an after-dinner hour with a cigar; easy, pleasant, empty, perhaps enlivened by some fable of strife to be forgotten - before the end is told - even if there happens to be any end to it.

There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.

To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.

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.

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

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

Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.

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

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.

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.