Some men are too cantankerous for anything—don’t know how to make the best of a bad job—don’t see things as they are—as they are, my boy!
 Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900). copy citation

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

Context

““Cannibal?—well, they used to give him the name years and years ago. You remember the story? A shipwreck on the west side of Stewart Island; that’s right; seven of them got ashore, and it seems they did not get on very well together. Some men are too cantankerous for anything—don’t know how to make the best of a bad job—don’t see things as they are—as they are, my boy! And then what’s the consequence? Obvious! Trouble, trouble; as likely as not a knock on the head; and serve ‘em right too. That sort is the most useful when it’s dead. The story goes that a boat of Her Majesty’s ship Wolverine found him kneeling on the kelp, naked as the day he was born, and chanting some psalm-tune or other;” source