I prefer to go on trying all kinds of things, not to be told, This is the way it is done.
CHINUA ACHEBEThe world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.
More Chinua Achebe Quotes
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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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Now one of the changes that must come to Africa is the idea of limited rule, I mean in term of how long one leader can stay in power. The era of president for life is not gone yet but it is on its way out and that is one of the problems with Mugabe and others.
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Charity is the opium of the privileged.
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If I hold her hand she says, ‘Don’t touch!’ If I hold her foot she says ‘Don’t touch!’ But when I hold her waist-beads she pretends not to know.
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Become familiar with your home, but know also about your neighbors. The young man who never went anywhere thinks his mother is the greatest cook.
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When we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.
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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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As long as one people sit on another and are deaf to their cry, so long will understanding and peace elude all of us.
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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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We shall all live. We pray for life, children, a good harvest and happiness. You will have what is good for you and I will have what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the egret perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.
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The lizard that jumped from a high Iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no-one else did.
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It is praiseworthy to be brave and fearless, but sometimes it is better to be a coward. We often stand in the compound of a coward to point at the ruins where a brave man used to live.
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We do not seek to hurt any man, but if any man seeks to hurt us may he break his neck.
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Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too – If one says no to the other, let his wing break.
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When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth
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The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use.
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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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A debt may get mouldy, but it never decays.
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Women and music should not be dated.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
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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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.
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When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
In dealing with a man who thinks you are a fool, it is good sometimes to remind him that you know what he knows but have chosen to appear foolish for the sake of peace.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
Procrastination is a lazy man’s apology.
CHINUA ACHEBE