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 ACHEBEIt has always been quite apparent to me that no important story can fail to tell us something of value to us.
More Chinua Achebe Quotes
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Women and music should not be dated.
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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.
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What a man does not know is greater than he.
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When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.
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There is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.
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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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When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.
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Art is man’s constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him.
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There is no story that is not true.
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Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life.
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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?
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When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight.
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The language of young men is pull down and destroy; but an old man speaks of conciliation.
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Charity is the opium of the privileged.
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It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have – otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.
CHINUA ACHEBE