“Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.”

A very important but difficult piece of renewing relationships is accepting responsibility for our part in any conflict.

We need other human beings in order to be human. I am because other people are. A person is entitled to a stable community life, and the first of these communities is the family.

If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. There’s nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible.

Forgiveness is truly the grace by which we enable another person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew.

I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.

We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.

We are not responsible for what breaks us, but we can be responsible for what puts us back together again. Naming the hurt is how we begin to repair our broken parts.

We learn from history that we don’t learn from history.

We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy.

I do believe there are monstrous and evil acts, but I do not believe those who commit such acts are monsters or evil.

You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

Transformation begins in you, wherever you are, whatever has happened, however you are suffering. Transformation is always possible.

We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

God is transforming the world now–through us–because God loves us.

Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.

In the original language, ‘Fear the Lord’ doesn’t mean be afraid. It means sustaining a joyful, astonished awe, and wonder before Him.

In India the odd thing is that English is this almost artificial language floating on the surface of a place with about fifty other languages. The same is true of Nigeria but even more so.

The media must be used effectively to reach the masses. You have to find a new language in which to address the people and demonstrate what is possible.

To have suffered much is like knowing many languages. Thou hast learned to understand all.

Language fits over experience like a straight-jacket.

He could hardly read or write but his heart spoke the language of the good

Writing in African languages became a topic of discussion in conferences, in schools, in classrooms; the issue is always being raised – so it’s no longer “in the closet,” as it were. It’s part of the discussion going on about the future of African literature.

If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it.