Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality.
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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If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.
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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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The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.
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He is a fool who treats his brother worse than a stranger.
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When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight.
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A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.
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I prefer to go on trying all kinds of things, not to be told, This is the way it is done.
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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.
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A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.
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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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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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When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.
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People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.
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Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination; it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity.
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A debt may get mouldy, but it never decays.
CHINUA ACHEBE