There are times when a man must act as though life were equally sweet in any company.
 Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900). copy citation

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Author Joseph Conrad
Source Lord Jim
Topic life time
Date 1900
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5658/5658-h/5658-h.htm

Context

“He paused reflectively, while without effort I could depict to myself the sort of people he was “aguaindt” with in those places. I won’t make a secret of it that I had been “aguaindt” with not a few of that sort myself. There are times when a man must act as though life were equally sweet in any company. I’ve known such a time, and, what’s more, I shan’t now pretend to pull a long face over my necessity, because a good many of that bad company from want of moral—moral—what shall I say?—posture, or from some other equally profound cause, were twice as instructive and twenty times more amusing than the usual respectable thief of commerce you fellows ask to sit at your table without any real necessity—from habit, from cowardice, from good-nature, from a hundred sneaking and inadequate reasons.” source