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. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm – all you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask. Joseph Conrad
About This Quote

This quote from a letter written by an English writer, Aldous Huxley, offers a vision of the relationship of literature and art with the world at large. The letter was addressed to an American woman who had been sent a copy of the author’s most recent novel by her aunt. It was in response to that letter that Huxley penned his famous essay about how he was trying to create “a state of mind which is in some degree analogous to that which exists in the reader when he reads my books.”

Source: The Nigger Of The Narcissus And The Secret Sharer

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More Quotes By Joseph Conrad
  1. 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.
  2. Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.
  3. 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.
  4. Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.
  5. Perhaps life is just that... a dream and a fear
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