80 quotes
They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience.
Under Western Eyes (1911)
For the great mass of mankind the only saving grace that is needed is steady fidelity to what is nearest to hand and heart in the short moment of each human effort.
Notes on Life and Letters (1921)
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.
Under Western Eyes (1911)
The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death.
The Mirror of the Sea (1906)
What makes mankind tragic is not that they are the victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it.
As to honour — you know — it's a very fine mediaeval inheritance which women never got hold of. It wasn't theirs.
Chance (1913)
The nigger was calm, cool, towering, superb.
There is no credulity so eager and blind as the credulity of covetousness, which, in its universal extent, measures the moral misery and the intellectual destitution of mankind.
Nostromo (1904)
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.
The Mirror of the Sea (1906)
Action in its essence, the creative art of a writer of fiction may be compared to rescue work carried out in darkness against cross gusts of wind swaying the action of a great multitude.
Henry James — An Appreciation (1905)
He remembered that she was pretty, and, more, that she had a special grace in the intimacy of life. She had the secret of individuality which excites — and escapes.
This could have occurred nowhere but in England, where men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak.
Youth (1902)
To the destruction of what is.
The Secret Agent (1907)
All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising, for the edification of mankind, pinned down by the conditions of its existence to the earnest consideration of the most insignificant tides of reality.
Henry James — An Appreciation (1905)
Who knows what true happiness is? Not the conventional word but the naked terror. To the lonely themselves, it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.
Under Western Eyes (1911)
She strode like a grenadier, was strong and upright like an obelisk, had a beautiful face, a candid brow, pure eyes, and not a thought of her own in her head.
Tales of Unrest. The Return (1902)
I can't tell if a straw ever saved a drowning man, but I know that a mere glance is enough to make despair pause. For in truth we who are creatures of impulse are not creatures of despair.
Chance (1913)
The imbecile bourgeoisie of this country make themselves the accomplices of the very people whose aim is to drive them out of their houses to starve in ditches. And they have the political power still, if they only had the sense to use it for their preservation.
The Secret Agent (1907)
I had been six years at sea, but had only seen Melbourne and Sydney, very good places, charming places in their way — but Bankok!
Youth (1902)