“ It's extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome. ”
Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900). copy citation
| Author | Joseph Conrad |
|---|---|
| Source | Lord Jim |
| Topic | life understanding dullness |
| Date | 1900 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5658/5658-h/5658-h.htm |
Context
“I kept him company; and suddenly, but not abruptly, as if the appointed time had arrived for his moderate and husky voice to come out of his immobility, he pronounced, «Mon Dieu! how the time passes!» Nothing could have been more commonplace than this remark; but its utterance coincided for me with a moment of vision. It's extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome. Nevertheless, there can be but few of us who had never known one of these rare moments of awakening when we see, hear, understand ever so much—everything—in a flash—before we fall back again into our agreeable somnolence.”
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Meaning and analysis
