“ No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. ”
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899). copy citation
| Author | Joseph Conrad |
|---|---|
| Source | Heart of Darkness |
| Topic | fear principles hunger |
| Date | 1899 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/219/219-h/219-h.htm |
Context
“Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity. Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear—or some kind of primitive honour? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its sombre and brooding ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly.”
source
Meaning and analysis
