The blight of futility that lies in wait for men's speeches had fallen upon our conversation and made it a thing of empty sounds.

I am a great foe of favoritism in public life, in private life, and even in the delicate relationship of an author to his works.

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 clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmostphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary.

They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience.

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

the mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as the future

The end (goal) of art is to figure the hidden meaning of things and not their appearance; for in this profound truth lies their true reality, which does not appear in their external outlines.