Heart Of Darkness And Selected Short Fiction Quotes
"You fight, work, sweat, nearly kill yourself, sometimes do kill yourself, trying to accomplish something—and you can’t. Not from any fault of yours. You simply can do nothing, neither great nor little—not a thing in the world—not even marry an old maid, or get a wretched 600-ton cargo of coal to its port of destination."
"It was one of the happiest days of my life. Fancy! Second mate for the first time—a really responsible officer! I wouldn’t have thrown up my new billet for a fortune."
"As to the captain, he had been for years in coasters, then in the Mediterranean, and last in the West Indian trade. He had never been round the Capes. He could just write a kind of sketchy hand, and didn’t care for writing at all."
"Both were thorough good seamen of course, and between those two old chaps I felt like a small boy between two grand-fathers."
"To me it was like coming out of a palace into a ruined cottage."
"There was a touch of romance in it, something that made me love the old thing."
"The world was nothing but an immensity of great foaming waves rushing at us."
"Youth, strength, genius, thoughts, achievements, simple hearts—all dies... No matter."
"It lasted all down the North Sea, all down Channel; and it lasted till we were three hundred miles or so to the westward of the Lizards."
"The sea was white like a sheet of foam, like a cauldron of boiling milk."
"They had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith—the adventures and the settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men on 'Change."
"Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma."
"The best way I can explain it to you is by saying that, for a second or two, I felt as though, instead of going to the centre of a continent, I were about to set off for the centre of the earth."
"The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist."
"The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam."
"They were just flung out there, and on we went."
"It was like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares."
"I wondered whether the stillness on the face of the immensity looking at us two were meant as an appeal or as a menace."
"I declare it looked as though he would presently put to us some question in an understandable language; but he died without uttering a sound."
"There was a sense of extreme disappointment, as though I had found out I had been striving after something altogether without a substance."
"The lustre of inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness."
"I couldn’t have been more disgusted if I had travelled all this way for the sole purpose of talking with Mr. Kurtz."
"The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words—the gift of expression."
"His very existence was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. He was an insoluble problem."
"And yet which of us is safe? At any rate, such as you see her, she had enough imagination to fall in love."
"She had even more than is necessary to understand suffering and to be moved by pity."
"She never seemed to wish for anything more. And then she fell in love."
"A sense of penetrating sadness, like that inspired by a grave strain of music, disengaged itself from the silence of the fields."
"One would think the earth is under a curse, since of all her children these that cling to her the closest are uncouth in body and as leaden of gait as if their very hearts were loaded with chains."
"He vaulted over the stiles, paced these slopes with a long elastic stride that made him noticeable at a great distance."
"He was so different from the mankind around that, with his freedom of movement, his soft—a little startled, glance, his olive complexion and graceful bearing, his humanity suggested to me the nature of a woodland creature."
"He told me himself that he put his trust in God, believing he was no longer in this world."
"Often the castaways were only saved from drowning to die miserably from starvation on a barren coast."
"It is indeed hard upon a man to find himself a lost stranger, helpless, incomprehensible, and of a mysterious origin, in some obscure corner of the earth."
"He was very good-looking and most graceful in his bearing, with something wild as of a woodland creature in his aspect."
"This sort of thing could not go on very long."
"I had felt the need of asserting myself without loss of time."
"It was very much like being mad, only it was worse because one was aware of it."
"He was too far to hear a word, but I had no doubt that this pantomime could only refer to the strange new captain."
"I had no leisure to weigh the merits of the matter."
"The very trust in Providence was, I suppose, denied to his guilt."
"I was appearing an irresolute commander to those people who were watching me."
"I felt that I was producing a bad impression."
"But on the whole I felt less torn in two when I was with him."
"I felt I had him on the run, and I meant to keep him on the run."
"And then I watched the hat—the expression of my sudden pity for his mere flesh."
"I was standing quietly by the pantry door when the steward returned."
"I was in time to make out, on the very edge of a darkness."
"She was perhaps stopped, and her very fate hung in the balance."
"The art of Mr. Conrad is exquisite and very subtle."
"He uses the tools of his craft with the fine, thoughtful delicacy of a mediaeval clock-maker."
"Mr. Conrad’s methods command and deserve the highest respect."
"Nothing is too minute, no process too laborious for this author."
"He does not count the hours of labour or the weight of weariness involved in the production of a flawless page."
"Mr. Conrad’s methods are illuminated always by a vivid wealth of atmosphere."
"Marlow’s account of the African woman is highly exoticized as well as eroticized."
"The atmosphere in which his characters move and act is presented with singular fidelity."
"Conrad's fiction grapples with humanity’s primordial nature."
"His narratives are as enthralling as the pages of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment."
"The weirdness, the brilliance, the psychological truth of this masterly analysis of two Continents in conflict."
"His studious and minute drawing of the action of men’s minds forms fascinating reading."
"Conrad creates his own forms, as he certainly has created his own methods."
"For the art of "Heart of Darkness" implies the catching of infinite shades of the white man’s uneasy relation with Africa."
"Conrad's narrative is like a page torn from the life of the Dark Continent."
"His stories have movement and incident, most of them have adventure."
"Conrad stepped outside the boundaries of traditional fiction, making his own class of work."
"He captures the distinctive atmosphere of a particular story within the limits of a few pages."
"Conrad's fiction is a piece of art, fascinating and remorseless."
"He is but intent on presenting his sensations in that sequence and arrangement whereby the meaning of the white man in uncivilized Africa can be felt."