The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage—who can tell?—but truth—truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder—the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff—with his own inborn strength. Principles? Principles won’t do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags—rags that would fly off at the first good shake. No; you want a deliberate belief.

From “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad invokes the power of the human mind and its inexhaustible strength. In this paragraph, the author exhorts the civilized man to awaken the dormant inner fortitude to meet the challenge of the primitive man’s instinctive courage: “the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore.”

This is a hot topic nowadays. The French philosopher Yves Michaud recently discussed the conflict between the Islamic culture and our society.  Speaking about the modern western man, he said, “The contemporary identity is fragile … society has replaced reflection and thinking with feelings, surrendering to the experience and especially the pleasure.”