# Quote — Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

> Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality. I have been for many years a teacher of languages. It is an occupation which at length becomes fatal to whatever share of imagination, observation, and insight an ordinary person may be heir to. To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.

- Author: [Joseph Conrad](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad.md)
- Book: [Under Western Eyes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/under-western-eyes.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad#Under_Western_Eyes_(1911)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/under-western-eyes/words-as-is-well

## More from this book

> Let a fool be made serviceable according to his folly.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/under-western-eyes/let-a-fool.md)

> Nations it may be have fashioned their Governments, but the Governments have paid them back in the same coin.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/under-western-eyes/nations-it-may.md)

> The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement — but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/under-western-eyes/the-scrupulous-and.md)