“ An inert body can do no harm to anyone, provokes no hostility, is scarcely worth derision. ”
Joseph Conrad, Victory: An Island Tale (1915). copy citation
| Author | Joseph Conrad |
|---|---|
| Source | Victory: An Island Tale |
| Topic | hostility worth |
| Date | 1915 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6378/6378-h/6378-h.htm |
Context
“First the capital evaporates, and then the company goes into liquidation. These are very unnatural physics, but they account for the persistent inertia of Heyst, at which we “out there” used to laugh among ourselves—but not inimically. An inert body can do no harm to anyone, provokes no hostility, is scarcely worth derision. It may, indeed, be in the way sometimes; but this could not be said of Axel Heyst. He was out of everybody's way, as if he were perched on the highest peak of the Himalayas, and in a sense as conspicuous.”
source
