# Quote — Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

> These chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. 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. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind — as is very proper for those who tackle a 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. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea — something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. . .

- Author: [Joseph Conrad](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad.md)
- Book: [Heart of Darkness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness#Part_I) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness/these-chaps-were

## More from this book

> It occurred to me that my speech or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness/it-occurred-to-me-that.md)

> 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 somber 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!'

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness/anything-approaching-the.md)

> I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness/i-found-myself.md)