Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality.
CHINUA ACHEBEThere is that great proverb – that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
More Chinua Achebe Quotes
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Women and music should not be dated.
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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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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.
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When we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.
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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.
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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.
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When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.
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No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man.
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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.
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The man that brings ant-infested faggots into his hut should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit.
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While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.
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People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.
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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.
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You do not know me,’ said Tortoise. ‘I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others makes trouble for himself.
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A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.
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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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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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There is that great proverb – that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
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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.
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When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.
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Just think of the work you’ve set yourself to do, and do it as well as you can.
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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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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.’
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When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don’t just turn it off one day.
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A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.
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My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered.
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