Chinua Achebe Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe Quotes & Sayings

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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