Lord Jim

by Joseph Conrad

'It was solemn, and a little ridiculous too, as they always are, those struggles of an individual trying to save from the fire his idea of what his moral identity should be, this precious notion of a convention, only one of the rules of the game, nothing more, but all the same so terribly effective by its assumption of unlimited power over natural instincts, by the awful penalties of its failure.

He had no leisure to regret what he had lost, he was so wholly and naturally concerned for what he had failed to obtain.

It was funny enough to make angels weep.

"Let him creep twenty feet underground and stay there." Better that, I thought, than this waiting above ground for the impossible.

"Yes," said I, "strictly speaking, the question is not how to get cured, but how to live."

that, the great plain on which men wander amongst graves and pitfalls remained very desolate under the impalpable poesy of its crepuscular light, overshadowed in the centre, circled with a bright edge as if surrounded by an abyss full of flames.

we had approached nearer to absolute Truth, which, like Beauty itself, floats elusive, obscure, half submerged, in the silent still waters of mystery.

Youth is insolent; it is its right—its necessity; it has got to assert itself, and all assertion in this world of doubts is a defiance, is an insolence.

It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident,

hazard, Fortune—the ally of patient Time—that holds an even and scrupulous balance.