Chinua Achebe Quotes

This is why I find racism impossible, because this is against humanity.

A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.

What a country needs to do is be fair to all its citizens – whether people are of a different ethnicity or gender.

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.

Travellers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves

We live in a society that is in transition from oral to written. There are oral stories that are still there, not exactly in their full magnificence, but still strong in their differentness from written stories. Each mode has its ways and methods and rules. They can reinforce each other; this is the advantage my generation has – we can bring to the written story something of that energy of the story told by word of mouth.

Every generation must recognize and embrace the task it is peculiarly designed by history and by providence to perform.

You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies.

Once you have really done all you can, then you can show it to people. But I find this is increasingly not the case with the younger people. They do a first draft and want somebody to finish it off for them with good advice.

Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life.

When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.

Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord’s holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life – to drive the crowd away from His church.