And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.
I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude – and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.
There is no peace and no rest in the development of material interests. They have their law, and their justice. But it is founded on expediency, and is inhuman; it is without rectitude, without the continuity and the force that can be found only in a moral principle.
I don’t like work... but I like what is in work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself, not for others – which no other man can ever know.
There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies – which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world – what I want to forget.
In the destructive element immerse.
Government in general, any government anywhere, is a thing of exquisite comicality to a discerning mind.
Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through the dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one’s very heart – its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life.
The sight of it made the earth seem unearthly. They were accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there – there you could look at a thing monstrous, beautiful, and free.
All that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.
And after some talk we agreed that the wisdom of rats had been grossly overrated, being in fact no greater than that of men.
It is very difficult to be wholly joyous or wholly sad on this earth.
He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a featherhat, walking on his hind legs.
The man who says that he has no illusions has at least that one.
To the destruction of what is.
The use of reason is to justify the obscure desires that move our conduct, impulses, passions, prejudices and follies, and also our fears.
Rich or poor, strong or weak, who among us has not begged God for a second chance?
He was ruined in every way, but a man possessed of passion is not a bankrupt in life.
The man who can’t do most things and won’t do the rest.
The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse.