Youth, a Narrative

“O youth! The strenght of it, the faith of it, the imagination of it! (...) I think of her with pleasure, with affection, with regret - as you would think of some one dead you have loved. I shall never forget her.... Pass the bottle.””

— Joseph Conrad

“I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more”

— Joseph Conrad

“You fight, work, sweat, nearly kill yourself, sometimes do kill yourself, trying to accomplish something”

— Joseph Conrad

“Oh the glamour of youth! Oh the fire of it, more dazzling than the flames of the burning ship, throwing a magic light on the wide earth, leaping audaciously to the sky, presently to be quenched by time, more cruel, more pitiless, more bitter than the sea”

— Joseph Conrad

“And after some talk we agreed that the wisdom of rats had been grossly overrated, being in fact no greater than that of men.””

— Joseph Conrad

“[…] but I remember I preferred the soldier to the philosopher at the time; a preference which life has only confirmed. One was a man, and the other was either more – or less. However, they are both dead, and Mrs Beard is dead, and youth, strength, genius, thoughts, achievements, simple hearts – all dies… No matter.””

— Joseph Conrad

“But for me all the East is contained in that vision of my youth. It is all in that moment when I opened my young eyes on it. I came upon it from a tussle with the sea”

— Joseph Conrad

“Ustedes, todos ustedes, han obtenido algo de la vida: dinero, amor-cosas en tierra firme-, pero, ¿acaso el tiempo en que estuvimos embarcados no fue el mejor de nuestras vidas? Cuando éramos jóvenes en la mar; jóvenes sin nada, sobre la mar que nada regala, excepto buenos golpes y momentos para ponerte a prueba, sólo eso, ¿no sientes haberlo perdido?””

— Joseph Conrad

“The sea was white like a sheet of foam, like a a caldron of boiling milk; there was not a break in the clouds, no”

— Joseph Conrad