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Alfred Nobel regretted that his invention, dynamite, was converted to degrading use, hence his creation of the Nobel Prize, as the humanist counter to the destructive power of his genius.

Wole Soyinka

My definition of slavery is the deprivation of human volition, any form of relationship between two peoples which is based on the deprivation of volition of one side.
WOLE SOYINKA

Base Between Definition Deprivation Human People Relationship Slavery Volition
I believe that each writer must decide in which language he or she is most comfortable.
WOLE SOYINKA

Believe Comfortable Each Language Most Must Decide Writer
But when you’re deprived of it for a lengthy period then you value human companionship. But you have to survive and so you devise all kinds of mental exercises and it’s amazing.
WOLE SOYINKA

All Companionship Deprive Devise Human Kind Length Period Survive
Intolerance has always been with us, you know. The moment you have ideology, we have intolerance, whether it’s the secular ideology or, you know ideocratic ideology, which always brings with it some kind of intolerance.
WOLE SOYINKA

Always Been Ideology Intolerance Moment Secular Wether
Let’s say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don’t think we have a new Nigeria yet.
WOLE SOYINKA

Country People Person Prospect Say Yet
There’s a lot of insincerity about the actions of our legislators; they create distractions – like this anti-gay law you alluded to – and try to mobilise, to exacerbate people’s emotions. Until the legislators started making laws, people minded, generally, their own business.
WOLE SOYINKA

Action Anti Attitude Create Distraction Gay Insincerity Legislator Like Lot Mobilise Try
I think that feeling that if one believed absolutely in any cause, then one must have the confidence, the self-certainty, to go through with that particular course of action.
WOLE SOYINKA

Absolute Believe Cause Certainty Confidence Feel Must One Self Think Through
Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.
WOLE SOYINKA

Control Domination Form Lie Power Selective Therefore Truth
The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.
WOLE SOYINKA

Absence Criticism Freedom Greatest Threat
Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling there’s a lot of work to be done.
WOLE SOYINKA

Done Face Feel Get Look Lot People Work
I don’t know any other way to live but to wake up everyday armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.
WOLE SOYINKA

Arm Conviction Danger Day Every Know Other Power Threat Wake Way Yield
What I teach is literary criticism and comparative literature and so on and that’s my function, but from time to time it’s possible for me actually to help a writer. I read something and something strikes me then, I feel I can talk to that writer about it.
WOLE SOYINKA

Actually Comparative Criticism Function Literacy Literature Possible Something Strike Talk Teach Time Writer
Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that arrogance gives way to a feeling of accommodativeness. You take pride in your openness.
WOLE SOYINKA

Adventure Arrogance Colonialism Feeling Imperial Innate Sort Understand Way
We do not ask the mountain’s aid to crack a walnut.
WOLE SOYINKA

Ask Crack Mountain Not Walnut
As a global citizen, I sometimes feel like denying my identity.
WOLE SOYINKA

Citizen Deny Feel Global Identity Sometimes
There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other people.
WOLE SOYINKA

Consume Feel Horrific Human Being Other People Really Sometimes

Alfred Nobel regretted that his invention, dynamite, was converted to degrading use, hence his creation of the Nobel Prize, as the humanist counter to the destructive power of his genius.

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Popular Authors

Alfred Nobel regretted that his invention, dynamite, was converted to degrading use, hence his creation of the Nobel Prize, as the humanist counter to the destructive power of his genius.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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