Friday, June 29, 2018

`Irresponsible Consciousness of Power'

Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea (1906), Chap. 36:

“No display of manly qualities -- courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness -- has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power. The ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by much adulation. He cannot brook the slightest appearance of defiance, and has remained the irreconcilable enemy of ships and men ever since ships and men had the unheard of audacity to go afloat together in the face of his frown. From that day he has gone on swallowing up fleets and men without his resentment being glutted by the number of victims -- by so many wrecked ships and wrecked lives.”

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