"They were conquerors, and for what 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 the others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got."
There are two parts of this quote that really grab my eye. The first is the part where "strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others," really prods at the idea that the men in the Congo (white men, of course) felt the "power" they had there because there was no real resistance. This would be increasingly easy to see upon analysis by someone visiting there...like Conrad...
The second is the "for the sake of what was to be got." Because essentially, that really sums up the point of a white person's influence in the Congo. Because there wasn't really a downside to exploiting the Congolese (at least, to the white folk).
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