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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: prison-cells, and as impenetrable as the granite of tombstones.
"Yes! Restraint, duty, fidelity--unswerving fidelity to what is
expected of you. This--only this--secures the reward, the peace.
Everything else we should labour to subdue--to destroy. It's
misfortune; it's disease. It is terrible--terrible. We must not know
anything about it--we needn't. It is our duty to ourselves--to others.
You do not live all alone in the world--and if you have no respect for
the dignity of life, others have. Life is a serious matter. If you
don't conform to the highest standards you are no one--it's a kind of
death. Didn't this occur to you? You've only to look round you to see
the truth of what I am saying. Did you live without noticing anything,
Tales of Unrest |
