Joseph Conrad

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.

Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it.

Some great men owe most of their greatness to the ability of detecting in those they destine for their tools the exact quality of strength that matters for their work.

A modern fleet of ships does not so much make use of the sea as exploit a highway.

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.

Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.

Criticism, that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters.