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.

CHINUA ACHEBE

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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.

Chinua Achebe

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Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior. The story outlives the sound of the war drum… The story is our escort. Without it we are blind… It is the thing that sets us apart from cattle.

CHINUA ACHEBE

Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior. The story outlives the sound of the war drum… The story is our escort. Without it we are blind… It is the thing that sets us apart from cattle.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Cattle Warrior
It has always been quite apparent to me that no important story can fail to tell us something of value to us.

CHINUA ACHEBE

It has always been quite apparent to me that no important story can fail to tell us something of value to us.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Apparent
We do not seek to hurt any man, but if any man seeks to hurt us may he break his neck.

CHINUA ACHEBE

We do not seek to hurt any man, but if any man seeks to hurt us may he break his neck.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Neck
The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did.

CHINUA ACHEBE

The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Lizard
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.

CHINUA ACHEBE

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.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Hurry Lame
I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.

CHINUA ACHEBE

I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.
CHINUA ACHEBE
My weapon is literature.

CHINUA ACHEBE

My weapon is literature.
CHINUA ACHEBE
There is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.

CHINUA ACHEBE

There is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Obligation
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.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Confirm See
Art is man’s constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him.

CHINUA ACHEBE

Art is man’s constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him.
CHINUA ACHEBE
When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.

CHINUA ACHEBE

When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.
CHINUA ACHEBE
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.’

CHINUA ACHEBE

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.’
CHINUA ACHEBE

Practical
The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair.

CHINUA ACHEBE

The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Damage
A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.

CHINUA ACHEBE

A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.
CHINUA ACHEBE

Milk Mom
It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbors.

CHINUA ACHEBE

It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbors.
CHINUA ACHEBE
Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality.

CHINUA ACHEBE

Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality.
CHINUA ACHEBE

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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.

Related Topics

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