Quotations from *Under Western Eyes*, 9 of 12
Joseph Conrad
1857-1924 Polish/British

Remorse, indeed! It was a striking example of your true conspirator's blindness, of the stupid subtlety of people with one idea.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

He felt pity for Ziemianitch, a large neutral pity, such as one may feel for an unconscious multitude, a great people seen from above—like a community of crawling ants working out its destiny.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

The insistence of the celebrated subversive journalist rankled in his mind strangely. Write. Must write! He! Write! A sudden light flashed upon him. To write was the very thing he had made up his mind to do that day. He had made up his mind irrevocably to that step and then had forgotten all about it.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

The manner of his life, he felt, must be kept clear of every cause for suspicion or even occasion for wonder, down to such trifling occurrences as a delay in opening a locked door. "I wish I were in the middle of some field miles away from everywhere," he thought.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

And it must be admitted that in Mr. Razumov's case the bitterness of solitude from which he suffered was not an altogether morbid phenomenon.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

"I understand your liberalism. I have an intellect of that kind myself. Reform for me is mainly a question of method. But the principle of revolt is a physical intoxication, a sort of hysteria which must be kept away from the masses."
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

On certain days he was afraid that anyone addressing him suddenly in a certain way would make him scream out insanely a lot of filthy abuse.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

On the contrary, he liked his lodgings better than any other shelter he, who had never known a home, had ever hired before. He liked his lodgings so well that often, on that very account, he found a certain difficulty in making up his mind to go out. It resembled a physical seduction such as, for instance, makes a man reluctant to leave the neighbourhood of a fire on a cold day.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

He had an uneasy recollection of having savagely told one or two innocent, nice enough fellows to go to the devil.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

From early morning till far into the night he wrote, he wrote for nearly a week; never looking at the time, and only throwing himself on the bed when he could keep his eyes open no longer.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

"And what about my own happiness, eh? Haven't I got any right to it, just because I can think for myself?..."
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

At that moment he was crossing the room slowly, intending to sit down on the sofa and try to compose his thoughts. But before he had got so far everything abandoned him—hope, courage, belief in himself, trust in men. His heart had, as it were, suddenly emptied itself. It was no use struggling on. Rest, work, solitude, and the frankness of intercourse with his kind were alike forbidden to him. Everything was gone. His existence was a great cold blank, something like the enormous plain of the whole of Russia levelled with snow and fading gradually on all sides into shadows and mists.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes