He is romantic–romantic, ” he repeated. “And that is very bad–very bad. Very good, too, ” he added. “But is he?” I queried.‘“ Gewiss, ” he said, and stood still holding up the candelabrum, but without looking at me. “Evident! What is it that by inward pain makes him know himself? What is it that for you and me makes him–exist?”‘ At that moment it was difficult to believe in Jim’s existence–starting from a country parsonage, blurred by crowds of men as by clouds of dust, silenced by the clashing claims of life and death in a material world–but his imperishable reality came to me with a convincing, with an irresistible force! I saw it vividly, as though in our progress through the lofty silent rooms amongst fleeting gleams of light and the sudden revelations of human figures stealing with flickering flames within unfathomable and pellucid depths, we had approached nearer to absolute Truth, which, like Beauty itself, floats elusive, obscure, half submerged, in the silent still waters of mystery. “Perhaps he is, ” I admitted with a slight laugh, whose unexpectedly loud reverberation made me lower my voice directly; “but I am sure you are.” With his head dropping on his breast and the light held high he began to walk again. “Well–I exist, too, ” he said. Joseph Conrad
In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.
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Terry Pratchett
Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
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Alan W. Watts
Belief is the death of intelligence.
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Robert Anton Wilson
If it turns out that there is a God...the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.
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Woody Allen
For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is...
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George Orwell
More Quotes By Joseph Conrad
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.
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.
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.
Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.
