Joseph Conrad on sharing your opinions

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Born in Poland in 1857, Joseph Conrad didn’t speak English fluently until his twenties, but became one of the major English writers. He wrote several classics, including The Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim. This passage comes from his novel An Outcast of the Islands. Willems does not come to a good end.

He experienced that irresistible impulse to impart information which is inseparable from gross ignorance. There is always some one thing which the ignorant man knows, and that thing is the only thing worth knowing; it fills the ignorant man's universe. Willems knew all about himself. . . .

He believed in his genius and in his knowledge of the world. Others should know of it also; for their own good and for his greater glory. All those friendly men who slapped him on die back and greeted him noisily should have the benefit of his example.

For that he must talk. He talked to them conscientiously. In the afternoon he expounded his theory of success over the little tables, dipping now and then his moustache in the crushed ice of the cocktails; in the evening he would often hold forth, cue in hand, to a young listener across the billiard table.

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