The world is large,” said Okonkwo. “I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife and her family.” “That cannot be,” said Machi. “You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies.
CHINUA ACHEBEWe 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.’
More Chinua Achebe Quotes
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As a rule I don’t like suffering to no purpose. Suffering should be creative, should give birth to something good and lovely.
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When brothers fight to death a stranger inherit their father’s estate.
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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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The problem with leaderless uprisings taking over is that you don’t always know what you get at the other end. If you are not careful you could replace a bad government with one much worse!
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In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to feel that the story that I was told about this religion wasn’t perhaps completely whole, that something was left out.
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If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings.
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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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When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.
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When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don’t just turn it off one day.
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No man however great is greater than his people.
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I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.
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People go to Africa and confirm what they already have in their heads and so they fail to see what is there in front of them.
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When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.
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My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered.
CHINUA ACHEBE