In this world of men nothing can be changed—neither happiness nor misery.
 Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes (1911). copy citation

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Author Joseph Conrad
Source Under Western Eyes
Topic happiness misery
Date 1911
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2480/2480-h/2480-h.htm

Context

“he said to himself, while her eyes rested upon him, black and impenetrable like the mental caverns where revolutionary thought should sit plotting the violent way of its dream of changes. As if anything could be changed! In this world of men nothing can be changed—neither happiness nor misery. They can only be displaced at the cost of corrupted consciences and broken lives—a futile game for arrogant philosophers and sanguinary triflers. Those thoughts darted through Razumov’s head while he stood facing the old revolutionary hand, the respected, trusted, and influential Sophia Antonovna, whose word had such a weight in the” source