The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.
WOLE SOYINKAThe hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail.
WOLE SOYINKADon’t take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
WOLE SOYINKASome of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.
WOLE SOYINKAMythology can be used, and has been used, even to re-state, you know, the very urgent problems of the world.
WOLE SOYINKAFor me, justice is the prime condition of humanity.
WOLE SOYINKAIntolerance 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 SOYINKAMy 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 SOYINKAIt’s the place to begin, always — to return to home, literally.
WOLE SOYINKAYou accept whoever you are interacting with, directly, or indirectly.
WOLE SOYINKAThe greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.
WOLE SOYINKAThe media must be used effectively to reach the masses. You have to find a new language in which to address the people and demonstrate what is possible.
WOLE SOYINKAThe media owes the responsibility to constantly tell the public the truth.
WOLE SOYINKAGovernance can dig itself into a huge hole and not even know it’s in there.
WOLE SOYINKAI am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wished we’d never smelled the fumes of petroleum.
WOLE SOYINKABooks and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.
WOLE SOYINKAI cannot accept the definition of collective good as articulated by a privileged minority in society, especially when that minority is in power.
WOLE SOYINKA