How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
"And what remains?" asked Ossipon in a stifled voice.
"I remain—if I am strong enough." (13.9-13.10)
This comment comes right on the heels of the Professor saying that he'd like to see social codes done away with. He wants there to be a social cleansing that would weed all the weak people out of society. Here, he basically says the opposite of what Michaelis believes, which is that society should function like a giant hospital where the strong take care of the weak. The Professor wants to see weak people exterminated, and his speech gives us a pretty spooky prediction of the genocide that Nazi-Occupied Germany would wage a little more than thirty years after this book was published.
Quote #8
"Haven't I suffered enough from this oppression of the weak?" he continued forcibly. Then tapping the breast-pocket of his jacket: "And yet I am the force […]" (13.11)
In this comment, the Professor says something that sounds a lot like its coming from an Ayn Rand character. He feels that he's spent his life being oppressed by the leeches of society who fail to recognize how much better he is than them. (Don't you just hate it when the leeches are like that?) He refers to himself as a force because he believes that the modern world suffers from a form of inertia, where you get political radicals like Ossipon who just sit around talking instead of actually doing something. In this case, the narrator might actually sympathize with the Professor. But the novel definitely doesn't endorse his insane fantasies as a healthy alternative.
Quote #9
But rolling to the feast on the top of the omnibus the Professor lost his high spirits. The contemplation of the multitudes thronging the pavements extinguished his assurance under a load of doubt and uneasiness which he could shake off after a period of seclusion in the room with the large cupboard closed by an enormous padlock. (13.20)
When he's on top of a double-decker bus, the Professor has a really tough time maintaining his belief that he's better than everyone else. This is because he's been faced with a very annoying fact of life: other people exist. Realizing this, he needs to retreat to his room where he can be alone and rebuild the fantasy that he's the only truly great person in the world. The enormous padlock on his cupboard also represents the isolation and sense of protection the Professor gets from being alone. He's basically in a catch-22. He needs other people to acknowledge his greatness, but can't admit to this need without shaking his sense of pride. Here, Conrad really shows the limits of being an egomaniacs, who are always caught between needing acknowledgment from others and trying to be totally independent.