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Droll thing life is -- that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself -- that comes too late -- a crop of inextinguishable regrets.
Joseph Conrad
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Life is a complex arrangement that often feels logical but ultimately leads to unfulfilled purposes and regrets.

In this quote, Joseph Conrad reflects on the paradoxical nature of life, suggesting that while it may appear to follow a strict, logical order, its ultimate purpose can seem elusive or futile. He implies that the greatest insight one can gain from life is self-knowledge, but this realization often comes too late to change the course of one's regrets and unfulfilled aspirations.

Themes

LifeRegretsSelf-KnowledgePurposePhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a philosophical debate about the meaning of life.

More from Joseph Conrad

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.
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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.
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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!
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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
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The artist appeals to that part of our being...which is a gift and not an acquisition - and, therefore, more permanently enduring.
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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.
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Quote by Joseph Conrad | QuoteProject