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A nickname may be the best record of a success. That's what I call putting the face of a joke upon the body of a truth.

— Joseph Conrad Nostromo (1904)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Often misquoted as "A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth."

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More quotes by Joseph Conrad

Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love — and to put its trust in life!!

The sea never changes and its works, for all the talk of men, are wrapped in mystery.

Typhoon (1902)

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

The Mirror of the Sea (1906)

It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.

An Outcast of the Islands (1896)

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

Under Western Eyes (1911)

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We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.

Martin Buber Between Man and Man (1965)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joseph Conrad (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.