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Ian O’Shaughnessy

Quotes · Joseph Conrad

“Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings. The courage, the composure, the confidence; the emotions and principles; every great and every insignificant thought belongs not to the individual but to the crowd: to the crowd that believes blindly in the irresistible force of its institutions and of its morals, in the power of the police and of its opinion.”

– Joseph Conrad, An Outpost of Progress, Oxford World Classics, 2008, pg. 5.

From volume V of the file · Book · 21st century

Themes: civilization & culture · virtue & character