quotes

“In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver. Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals. They, no doubt, like the rest of us, found what they deserved. I did not inquire.” (Section 2/ Part 1)

This quote is all about Marlow's acceptance of death, and how death is acceptable if the means produces the required end, even people are expendable, as the men are less valuable than the animals they seek.

“The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. . . . I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of ‘unsound method.’” (Part 3/ Section 3)

This quote defines the "heart of Darkness," as Marlow travels away through the jungle but is still surrounded by it as he moves down the brown river back to a white civilization with his cargo of ivory.

“I was within a hair’s-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it. . . . He had summed up—he had judged. ‘The horror!’ He was a remarkable man.” (Part 3/ Last Section)

Marlow has been sick and unable to speak, but here we have Kurtz who is not only able to verbalize what they've done but has the courage to pronounce judgment as well.