It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun. It is as if loneliness were a hard and absolute condition of existence; the envelope of flesh and blood on which our eyes are fixed melts before the outstretched hand, and there remains only the capricious, unconsolable and elusive spirit that no eye can follow, no hand can grasp.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the complexities of understanding others and the inherent loneliness of the human experience.
Joseph Conrad's quote explores the profound and often ungraspable nature of human existence. It suggests that while we share physical experiences and emotions with others, there remains an essential solitude within each individual, as their true inner needs and feelings are often elusive and beyond our full comprehension. This highlights the struggle to connect deeply with others while acknowledging the personal isolation that exists within us all.
In practice
In a speech about mental health awareness, one might bring this quote to emphasize the hidden struggles individuals face.
I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude - and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.
Hang ideas! They are tramps, vagabonds, knocking at the back-door of your mind, each taking a little of your substance, each carrying away some crumb of that belief in a few simple notions you must cling to if you want to live decently and would like to die easy!
Joy and sorrow in this world pass into each other, mingling their forms and their murmurs in the twilight of life as mysterious as an overshadowed ocean, while the dazzling brightness of supreme hopes lies far off, fascinating and still, on the distant edge of the horizon
The artist appeals to that part of our being...which is a gift and not an acquisition - and, therefore, more permanently enduring.
History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.
There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.
The values by which we are to survive are not rules for just and unjust conduct, but are those deeper illuminations in whose light justice and injustice, good and evil, means and ends are seen in fearful sharpness of outline.
As long as there is still one beggar around, there will still be myth.
With the same honest views, the most honest men often form different conclusions.
To think justly, we must understand what others mean. To know the value of our thoughts, we must try their effect on other minds.
No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.
Someone may ask, 'How is justice greater than all the other virtues?' The other virtues gratify the one who possesses them; justice does not give pleasure to the one possessing it, but instead pleases others.
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