HEART OF DARKNESS DARKNESS QUOTES

“The horror! The horror!” – Kurtz

“Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world… an empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest.” – Marlow

“Everything belonged to him – but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.” – Marlow

“And this also,’ said Marlow suddenly, ‘has been one of the dark places of the earth.” – Marlow

“The darkness was oppressive, and it seemed to quiver in the airless gloom like the gloom of an underground vault.” – Marlow

“He was just a word for me. I did not see the man in the name any more than you do. Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything? It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream—making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation.” – Marlow

“There is a fascination in such a death – I mean his own, who had been the most free of us all – that it is perfecly provoking, you understand.” – Marlow

“I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable greyness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat.” – Marlow

“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.” – Marlow

“It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention.” – Marlow

“Droll thing life is — that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself — that comes too late — a crop of inextinguishable regrets.” – Marlow

“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.” – Marlow

“It appeared to me that the eloquence of these men was smooth, but that there was something in it, something behind its perfect smoothness of which you could neither catch the meaning nor touch the substance.” – Marlow

“I felt that I had been taken from the house of mourning and shown the house of mourning.” – Marlow ANNIVERSARY ROMANTIC QUOTES FOR HUSBAND

“Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency – the devotion to efficiency.” – Marlow

“It had become a place of darkness. But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.” – Marlow

“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it.” – Marlow

“It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery—a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness.” – Marlow

“The rest of the station-house was engaged in a riotous carnival of debauchery.” – Marlow

“I had joined them unaided…I heard them muttering together in the room. It was easy to see the donkeys wanted no encouragement. They bray clamorously at the sight of a female donkey.” – Marlow

“The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return.” – Marlow

“He could be very terrible. You know that as an intelligent man you would rather not have been told.” – Marlow

“I have known you long enough to know your devotion to efficiency.” – Marlow

“The mind of man is capable of anything – because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future.” – Marlow

“The wilderness had patted him on the head, and, behold, it was like a ball – an ivory ball; it had caressed him, and – lo! – he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.” – Marlow

“This for the history taught by soil belonging to us and to all the days before us.” – Marlow