People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that’s the time to do something about it, not when it’s around your neck.
CHINUA ACHEBEA coward may cover the ground with his words but when the time comes to fight he runs away.
More Chinua Achebe Quotes
-
-
I don’t like to see mistakes on the typewriter. I like a perfect script. On the typewriter I will sometimes leave a phrase that is not right, not what I want, simply because to change it would be a bit messy.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
An angry man is always a stupid man.
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 -
Charity is the opium of the privileged.
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 -
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.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
When we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
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.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
One reason why I am quite angry with what is happening in Nigeria today is that everything has collapsed. If I decide to go back now, there will be so many problems – where will I find the physical therapy and other things that I now require?
CHINUA ACHEBE -
I prefer to go on trying all kinds of things, not to be told, This is the way it is done.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
A man who does not lick his lips, can he blame the harmattan for drying them?
CHINUA ACHEBE -
When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
There is no story that is not true.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
Every generation must find its mission and fulfill it, as Fanon said – or betray it. So it is not something that you can write up on the wall, saying this is what has to be done. Every generation has to discover what it needs to do.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination; it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
The world is large,” said Okonkwo. “I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife and her family.” “That cannot be,” said Machi. “You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies.
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 -
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.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
The language of young men is pull down and destroy; but an old man speaks of conciliation.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
My weapon is literature.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.
CHINUA ACHEBE -
Procrastination is a lazy man’s apology.
CHINUA ACHEBE