“ Nothing more awful than to watch a man who has been found out, not in a crime but in a more than criminal weakness. The commonest sort of fortitude prevents us from becoming criminals in a legal sense ”
Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900). copy citation
| Author | Joseph Conrad |
|---|---|
| Source | Lord Jim |
| Topic | weakness crime |
| Date | 1900 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5658/5658-h/5658-h.htm |
Context
“That’s how he looked, and it was odious. I waited to see him overwhelmed, confounded, pierced through and through, squirming like an impaled beetle—and I was half afraid to see it too—if you understand what I mean. Nothing more awful than to watch a man who has been found out, not in a crime but in a more than criminal weakness. The commonest sort of fortitude prevents us from becoming criminals in a legal sense; it is from weakness unknown, but perhaps suspected, as in some parts of the world you suspect a deadly snake in every bush—from weakness that may lie hidden, watched or unwatched, prayed against or manfully scorned, repressed or maybe ignored more than half a lifetime, not one of us is safe.”
source
