A goat does not eat into a hen’s stomach no matter how friendly the two may be.
CHINUA ACHEBEThere is no story that is not true.
More Chinua Achebe Quotes
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People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that’s the time to do something about it, not when it’s around your neck.
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The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.
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The impatient idealist says: ‘Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.’ But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.
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My weapon is literature.
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The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience.
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Most writers who are beginners, if they are honest with themselves, will admit that they are praying for a readership as they begin to write. But it should be the quality of the craft, not the audience, that should be the greatest motivating factor.
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When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.
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Every lizard lies on its belly, so we cannot tell which has a belly-ache
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What a country needs to do is be fair to all its citizens – whether people are of a different ethnicity or gender.
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I am against people reaping where they have not sown. But we have a saying that if you want to eat a toad you should look for a fat and juicy one.
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One reason why I am quite angry with what is happening in Nigeria today is that everything has collapsed. If I decide to go back now, there will be so many problems – where will I find the physical therapy and other things that I now require?
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The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.
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We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n’ani ji onwe ya: ‘He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.’
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When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth
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Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
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Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be.
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A man of worth never gets up to unsay what he said yesterday.
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When we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.
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When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight.
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One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.
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There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts.
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Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world like the young antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come.
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If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own. If you don’t like what somebody says, say what it is you don’t like.
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The singer should sing well even if it is merely to himself, rather than dance badly for the whole world.
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Whatever music you beat on your drum there is somebody who can dance to it.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.
CHINUA ACHEBE