How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #4
"[It] is character alone that makes for ones safety. There are very few people in the world whose character is as well established as mine." (4.50)
The Professor sums up the reason for his confidence when he claims to have more "character" than the people around him. He refers to his character as well-established because he thinks of himself as a very solid person. But he also says well-established because he can only show his power by having people know that he's carrying a bomb and willing to use it. Again, we find here more evidence of the Professor's overwhelming pride. The logic of his position, though, is almost airtight, and this often frustrates Ossipon, who constantly looks for cracks in the Professor's confidence and comes up empty.
Quote #5
"I am not impressed by them. Therefore they are inferior. They cannot be otherwise. […] They depend on life, which, in this connection, is a historical fact surrounded by all sorts of restraints and considerations, a complex, organized fact open to attack at every point; whereas I depend on death, which knows no restraint and cannot be attacked. My superiority is evident." (4.55)
At the beginning of this quote, The Professor seems to suggest that just by thinking something is true, he makes it true. But he goes on to explain his position further, basically saying that everyone around him works with the assumption that they'll continue to go on living. The Professor, though, lives with the assumption that he will die, and this puts him in a position of total advantage over them. For him, it's just a matter of mental arithmetic: (Professor + Death) > (Everyone Else + Life). Conrad is definitely critical of the Professor's pride and individualism. But here, he kind of admits that there's a solid logic to what the Professors saying.
Quote #6
His struggles, his privations, his hard work to raise himself in the social scale, had filled him with such an exalted conviction of his merits that it was extremely difficult for the world to treat him with justice—the standard of that notion depending so much upon the patience of the individual. (4.104)
This passage gives you a really good sense of how totally antisocial the Professor is. Not only does he think that he's greater than everyone else; he thinks that the world is to blame for him not being totally famous and respected. This helps show that the Professor's pride is actually kind of childish in its self-centeredness. He thinks that his struggles to prove his greatness have made him different than everyone else, even though it's clear that everyone in this book has struggles of their own. There's almost nothing the world can do to treat him with justice because he insists on having everything his way all the time.