Chinua Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Chinua

Chinua Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational Chinua quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

The women are, of course, the biggest single group of oppressed people in the world and, if we are to believe the Book of Genesis, the very oldest. — Chinua Achebe

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. — Chinua Achebe

[H]e developed a private philosophy of total self-reliance, an unyielding internal sufficiency that requires no external support from others. — Chinua Achebe

A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness — Chinua Achebe

He who fights for a ne'er-do-well has nothing to show for it except a head covered in earth and grime. — Chinua Achebe

You must develop the habit of skepticism, not swallow every piece of superstition you are told by witch-doctors and professors. — Chinua Achebe

The most awful thing about power is not that it corrupts absolutely but that it makes people so utterly boring, so predictable. — Chinua Achebe

For whom is it well, for whom is it well.
There is no one for whom it is well. — Chinua Achebe

the clock is ticking — Chinua Achebe

I don't care about age very much. I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life. — Chinua Achebe

He is a fool who treats his brother worse than a stranger. — Chinua Achebe

An artist in my view is always afraid of extremists; he is always afraid of those who claim to have found the ultimate solution to any question. — Chinua Achebe

I think writers are not only writers, they are also citizens. — Chinua Achebe

Serious and good art has always existed to help, to serve, humanity. Not to indict. — Chinua Achebe

We do not seek to hurt any man, but if any man seeks to hurt us may he break his neck. — Chinua Achebe

A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. — Chinua Achebe

Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father. — Chinua Achebe

Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged. — Chinua Achebe

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. — Chinua Achebe

There is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless. — Chinua Achebe

When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth — Chinua Achebe

...Nothing puzzles God — Chinua Achebe

Those whose kernels were cracked by benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble. — Chinua Achebe

When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands. — Chinua Achebe

When a coward sees a man he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight. — Chinua Achebe

Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination; it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity. — Chinua Achebe

Beware Okonkwo!" she warned. "Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware! — Chinua Achebe

Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. — Chinua Achebe

People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories. — Chinua Achebe

The sun will shine on those who stand, before it shines on those who kneel under them. — Chinua Achebe

When brothers fight to death a stranger inherit their father's estate — Chinua Achebe

What a man does not know is greater than he. — Chinua Achebe

Travellers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves — Chinua Achebe

Real tragedy is never resolved. It goes on hopelessly for ever. — Chinua Achebe

Presidents do not go off on leave without telling the country. — Chinua Achebe

There is no story that is not true. — Chinua Achebe

A man who does not lick his lips, can he blame the harmattan for drying them? — Chinua Achebe

She pouted her lips like a gun in my face. — Chinua Achebe

When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun. — Chinua Achebe

An angry man is always a stupid man. — Chinua Achebe

A man who lived on the banks of the Niger should not wash his hands with spittle. — Chinua Achebe

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

A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership. — Chinua Achebe

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. — Chinua Achebe

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. — Chinua Achebe

Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. — Chinua Achebe

Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches! — Chinua Achebe

Art is man's constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him. — Chinua Achebe

Ghana and Nigeria resented each other and competed for supremacy in every sphere - politics, academia, sports, you name it. — Chinua Achebe

When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk — Chinua Achebe

If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all. — Chinua Achebe

A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors. — Chinua Achebe

As long as one people sit on another and are deaf to their cry, so long will understanding and peace elude all of us. — Chinua Achebe

Men have learned to shoot without missing their mark and I have learned to fly without perching on a twig. — Chinua Achebe

[Would] a sensible man spit out the juicy morsel that good fortune put in his mouth? — Chinua Achebe

The Igbo culture says no condition is permanent. There is constant change in the world. — Chinua Achebe

An artist, in my understanding of the word, should side with the people against the Emperor that oppresses his or her people. — Chinua Achebe

There is no story that is not true, [ ... ] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others. — Chinua Achebe

When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don't just turn it off one day. — Chinua Achebe

Procrastination is a lazy man's apology. — Chinua Achebe

A child cannot pay for its mother's milk. — Chinua Achebe

The man that brings ant-infested faggots into his hut should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit. — Chinua Achebe

Americans, it seems to me, tend to protect their children from the harshness of life, in their interest. — Chinua Achebe

There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts. — Chinua Achebe

Wisdom is like a goatskin bag; every man carries his own. — Chinua Achebe

The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair. — Chinua Achebe

A snake was never called by its name at night, because it would hear. It was called a string. — Chinua Achebe

Become familiar with your home, but know also about your neighbors. The young man who never went anywhere thinks his mother is the greatest cook. — Chinua Achebe

A debt may get mouldy, but it never decays. — Chinua Achebe

Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality. — Chinua Achebe

Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. Okoye — Chinua Achebe

My weapon is literature
— Chinua Achebe

Stories are not always innocent; ... they can be used to put you in the wrong crowd, in the party of the man who has come to dispossess you. — Chinua Achebe

Whatever music you beat on your drum there is somebody who can dance to it. — Chinua Achebe

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

Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. — Chinua Achebe

Each of my books is different. Deliberately ... I wanted to create my society, my people, in their fullness. — Chinua Achebe

Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself. — Chinua Achebe

If one finger brings oil it soils the others. — Chinua Achebe

Looking at a king's mouth, ' said an old man, 'one would think he never sucked at his mother's breast. — Chinua Achebe

Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world like the young antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come. — Chinua Achebe

A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing — Chinua Achebe

Every lizard lies on its belly, so we cannot tell which has a belly-ache — Chinua Achebe

An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb — Chinua Achebe

When we hear a house has fallen do we ask if the ceiling fell with it? — Chinua Achebe

Africa is to Europe as the picture is to Dorian Gray-a carrier onto whom the master unloads his physical & moral deformities — Chinua Achebe

That we are surrounded by deep mysteries is known to all but the incurably ignorant. — Chinua Achebe

Nigera is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be. — Chinua Achebe

When a new saying gets to the land of empty men, they lose their heads over it. — Chinua Achebe

A disease that has never been seen before cannot be cured with every-day herbs. — Chinua Achebe

A kinsman in trouble had to be saved, not blamed; anger against a brother was felt in the flesh, not in the bone. — Chinua Achebe

Nigeria has had a complicated colonial history. My work has examined that part of our story extensively. — Chinua Achebe

One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised. — Chinua Achebe

When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see. — Chinua Achebe

To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them. — Chinua Achebe

No man however great is greater than his people — Chinua Achebe

My son even if you want to fall, at least fall where your bones can be gathered — Chinua Achebe

It is difficult to express the reality of Ibo society in classical English. — Chinua Achebe

I don't care about age very much. — Chinua Achebe

People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience. — Chinua Achebe