Quotes from book

Heart of Darkness

“It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”

“We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness”

“We live in the flicker -- may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.”

“They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.”

“No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone.”

“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.”

“I don't like work--no man does--but I like what is in the work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself not for others--what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.”

“But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad.”

“They had behind them, to my mind, the terrific suggestiveness of words heard in dreams, of phrases spoken in nightmares.”

“We live as we dream--alone….”

“Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.”

“Even extreme grief may ultimately vent
itself in violence--but more generally takes the form of apathy”

“It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.”

“He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away.”

“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil water-way leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”

“Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you, smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, "Come and find out".”

“We couldn't understand because we were too far… and could not remember because we were traveling in the night of first ages, those ages that had gone, leaving hardly a sign… and no memories.”

“I have a voice, too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced”

“One can't live with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse.”