The last thing I want to tell you is this: in a real revolutionnot a simple dynastic change or a mere reform of institutionsin a real revolution the best characters do not come to the front. A violent revolution falls into the hands of narrow-minded fanatics and of tyrannical hypocrites at first. Afterwards comes the turn of all the pretentious intellectual failures of the time. Such are the chiefs and the leaders. You will notice that I have left out the mere rogues. The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movementbut it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims: the victims of disgust, of disenchantmentoften of remorse. Hopes grotesquely betrayed, ideals caricaturedthat is the definition of revolutionary success. There have been in every revolution hearts broken by such successes. But enough of that. My meaning is that I dont want you to be a victim.
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About Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a 19th-century British british writer. Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and – though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties – he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. Read more on Wikipedia →