“Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too – If one says no to the other, let his wing break.”

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.

When we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.

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.

The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience.

Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit — in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.

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

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.

People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.

I think not just Nigeria but I think the whole of Africa has to turn back to the rural areas and that’s where the majority of the citizens are and that’s where the engine of of development has to be found.

Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am – and what I need – is something I have to find out myself.

We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own.

When a man is at peace with his gods and ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm.

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

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.

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.

When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.

One must never miss an opportunity of quoting things by others which are always more interesting than those one thinks up oneself.

I believe that India is such a big country that one must do as much work as possible. So I keep doing that.

Rosa Parks wasn’t the first one to rebel against the segregated seats. I was the first one.

Your mind and a computer have one thing in common: neither of them know the difference between the truth and what you tell it.

I had only one superstition. I made sure to touch all the bases when I hit a home run.

No one achieves great things by following the crowd. Have a spine. Strike your own path.

I cannot think that I am a good cricketer and just become one. For this, one needs skill.

One never knows the ending. One has to die to know exactly what happens after death, although Catholics have their hopes.