"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"
About this Quote
The subtext is a bleak diagnosis of power, not a sneer at decency. Conrad’s verbs are clinical: a movement “passes away,” leadership is not earned by virtue but seized by those willing to use pressure, fear, and simplification. The “unselfish and the intelligent” are structurally unsuited to revolutionary politics because they hesitate, they doubt, they refuse the crudest tools. That refusal doesn’t make them innocent bystanders; it makes them expendable. “Victims” lands like a verdict: revolutions consume the very ethics that justified them.
Context sharpens the cynicism. Conrad came of age in the shadow of Europe’s failed uprisings and the brutal afterlives of idealist causes; he understood empires, propaganda, and the way noble intentions can be conscripted by harder men. Read against the early 20th century’s rising mass movements, the line anticipates the pattern where the passionate moral minority opens the door and the disciplined, ruthless cadre walks through it. It works because it’s less prophecy than anatomy: an argument that political violence doesn’t just risk corruption; it selects for it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Leadership |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Conrad, Joseph. (2026, January 15). 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. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-scrupulous-and-the-just-the-noble-humane-and-92071/
Chicago Style
Conrad, Joseph. "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." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-scrupulous-and-the-just-the-noble-humane-and-92071/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"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." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-scrupulous-and-the-just-the-noble-humane-and-92071/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
