"Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men."
"For a bag of pepper, they could cut each other's throats without hesitation, and would forswear their souls... The bizarre obstinacy of that desire made them defy death in a thousand shapes; the unknown seas, the loathsome diseases; wounds, captivity, hunger, pestilence and despair. It made them great! By heavens! It made them heroic; and it made them pathetic, too, in their craving for trade with the inflexible death levying its toll on young and old"
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Source: Joseph Conrad (2014). “Joseph Conrad: Selected Novels”, p.284, Anthem Press
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