Heart Of Darkness Quotes:

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. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (2008). “Heart of Darkness and Other Tales”, OUP Oxford

topic: Heart, Water, Darkness, Heart Of Darkness

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 too much.

- Joseph Conrad

topic: Peace, Mean, Earth, Discrimination And Racism, Racial Discrimination

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

- Joseph Conrad

topic: Darkness, Trifles, Heart Of Darkness

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.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (2008). “Heart of Darkness and Other Tales”, OUP Oxford

topic: Mad, Heaven, Soul, Darkness Of The Soul, Heart Of Darkness

Sadness flies on the wings of the morning, and out of the heart of darkness comes the light.

- Jean Giraudoux

source: Jean Giraudoux (1974). “The Madwoman of Chaillot: Comedy in Two Acts”, p.65, Dramatists Play Service Inc

topic: Happiness, Broken Heart, Heartbroken, Heal A Broken Heart, Heart Breaking

You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. 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.

- Joseph Conrad

topic: Lying, Hate, Bears, Flavour, Heart Of Darkness

The mind of man is capable of anything.

- Joseph Conrad

topic: Heart, Men, Mind, Heart Of Darkness

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. By Jove! I've never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (2002). “Heart of Darkness and Other Tales”, p.125, Oxford University Press, USA

topic: Thinking, Air, Ivory, Heart Of Darkness

I prefer to believe the opposite - that there is always an indestructible beauty at the heart of darkness.

- Mary Balogh

source: Mary Balogh (2003). “A Summer to Remember”, p.376, Dell

topic: Believe, Heart, Opposites, Indestructible, Heart Of Darkness

... it was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.

- Joseph Conrad

topic: Struggle, Choices, Loyal, Heart Of Darkness

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.

- Joseph Conrad

topic: Heart, Sky, Clouds, Storm Clouds, Overcast

And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (2010). “Heart of Darkness”, p.6, Bibliolis Books

topic: Dark, Earth, Said, Heart Of Darkness

Truly I have looked in the very heart of darkness and refused to yield to its paralyzing influence, but in spirit I am one of those who walk the morning.

- Helen Keller

source: Helen Keller (2007). “My Religion”, p.141, Book Tree

topic: Uplifting, Morning, Heart, Heart Of Darkness

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.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Heart of Darkness ch. 1 (1902)

topic: Life, Dream, Essence, Heart Of Darkness

Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: The horror! The horror!

- Joseph Conrad

source: Heart of Darkness ch. 3 (1902)

topic: Struggle, Pride, Expression, Heart Of Darkness

Everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (1995). “Heart of Darkness and Other Stories”, p.76, Wordsworth Editions

topic: Stars, Laughter, Expectations, Prodigious, Heart Of Darkness

When I think of the standing, the importance and the erudition of all these people who see nothing about racism in Heart of Darkness, I'm convinced that we must really be living in different worlds.

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Heart, Thinking, Racism, Different Worlds, Erudition

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, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams.

- Joseph Conrad

source: "Heart of Darkness". Book by Joseph Conrad, 1902.

topic: Dream, Struggle, Essence, Bewilderment, Heart Of Darkness

When one has got to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages--hate them to the death.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (2015). “Heart of Darkness”, p.36, eKitap Projesi

topic: Hate, Darkness, Savages, Heart Of Darkness, Entry

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.

- Joseph Conrad

topic: Weakness, Want, Brute Force, Heart Of Darkness

I hate being awake at three in the morning. It is the godforsaken heart of darkness when the body runs slow, and the brain runs slower, and all you want to do is sleep. But I had promises to keep, and miles to go before I could sleep. Or at least a couple of miracles to perform before I could go to bed.

- Laurell K. Hamilton

topic: Running, Morning, Couple, Miles To Go, Heart Of Darkness

Joseph Conrad and Heart of Darkness loom huge in my development as a writer. I think I'm always trying to write Heart of Darkness - trying to explode an abstraction in concrete terms, although I am aware that Conrad's story has a bit of baggage that I'd rather avoid in my work.

- Sabina Murray

source: Source: therumpus.net

topic: Writing, Heart, Thinking, Heart Of Darkness

Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it. And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up — some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.

- Harper Lee

topic: Book, Heart, Years, Empty Rooms, Heart Of Darkness

The conquest of the earth... is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only... not a sentimental pretence but an idea.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (2012). “Heart of Darkness: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.7, Penguin

topic: Ideas, Sentimental, Looks, Pretence, Heart Of Darkness

When I do a novel, I don't really use the script, I use the book; when I did Apocalypse Now, I used Heart of Darkness. Novels usually have so much rich material.

- Francis Ford Coppola

topic: Book, Heart, Darkness, Heart Of Darkness

Generally in my films like Hearts of Darkness or Picture This, I try not to make myself a presence in the film.

- George Hickenlooper

source: "Rise and Fall on the Sunset Strip; George Hickenlooper Finds His “Zelig” with L.A. DJ Rodney Bingenh". Interview With Wendy Mitchell, www.indiewire.com. March 26, 2004.

topic: Heart, Darkness, Trying, Heart Of Darkness

I saw that on Small Business Saturday, the president went shopping at a bookstore and bought 17 books, including "The Laughing Monsters," "Being Mortal," and "Heart of Darkness." Or as the cashier put it, "You OK, man? Maybe a little 'Chicken Soup for the Presidential Soul?'

- Jimmy Fallon

topic: Book, Heart, Men, Cashiers, Chicken Soup

Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins.

- John Kennedy Toole

topic: Heart, New Orleans, Cities, Dunces, Wasteland