People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that's the time to do something about it, not when it's around your neck. Chinua Achebe More Quotes by Chinua Achebe More Quotes From Chinua Achebe Beware Okonkwo!" she warned. "Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware! Chinua Achebe okonkwo doe men The problem with leaderless uprisings taking over is that you don't always know what you get at the other end. If you are not careful you could replace a bad government with one much worse! Chinua Achebe uprising government problem My position is that serious and good art has always existed to help, to serve, humanity. Not to indict. I don’t see how art can be called art if its purpose is to frustrate humanity. To make humanity uncomfortable, yes. But intrinsically to be against humanity, that I don’t take. Chinua Achebe purpose humanity art Unoka went into an inner room and soon returned with a small wooden disc containing a kola nut, some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk. "I have kola," he announced when he sat down, and passed the disc over to his guest. "Thank you. He who brings kola brings life. But I think you ought to break it," replied Okoye passing back the disc. "No, it is for you, I think," and they argued like this for a few moments before Unoka accepted the honor of breaking the kola. Okoye, meanwhile, took the lump of chalk, drew some lines on the floor, and then painted his big toe. Chinua Achebe nuts white thinking If you don't like someone's story, write your own. If you don't like what somebody says, say what it is you don't like. Chinua Achebe write-your-own stories writing Presidents do not go off on leave without telling the country. Chinua Achebe president country I couldn't tell you why but now I know a story is in fact where you discover who you are, where a culture discovers what it is and I just think that this is a terribly important place to get into and that I would enjoy it. Chinua Achebe important facts thinking Contradictions if well understood and managed can spark off the fires of invention. Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity. Chinua Achebe sparks creativity fire A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk. Chinua Achebe mother pay children Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again. Chinua Achebe wake-up democracy years When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth Chinua Achebe mouths mother watches We live in a sea of general ideas, so that's not a novel, since there are so many general ideas. But the moment a particular idea is linked to a character, it's like an engine moves it. Then you have a novel underway. Chinua Achebe sea character moving The most awful thing about power is not that it corrupts absolutely but that it makes people so utterly boring, so predictable. Chinua Achebe awful boring people We must now turn from considering the necessary struggle with language arising, as it were, from its very nature and the nature of the society it serves to the more ominous threat to its integrity brought about neither by its innate inadequacy nor yet by the incompetence and carelessness of its ordinary users, but rather engineered deliberately by those who will manipulate words for their own ends. Chinua Achebe struggle ordinary integrity You cannot plant greatness as you plant yams or maize. Who ever planted an iroko tree — the greatest tree in the forest? You may collect all the iroko seeds in the world, open the soil and put them there. It will be in vain. The great tree chooses where to grow and we find it there, so it is with the greatness in men. Chinua Achebe yams greatness men The singer should sing well even if it is merely to himself, rather than dance badly for the whole world. Chinua Achebe singers should world I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life. Chinua Achebe growing-up people thinking Every lizard lies on its belly, so we cannot tell which has a belly-ache Chinua Achebe lizards thought-provoking lying In such a regime, I say, you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murderer in the chest-without asking to be paid. Chinua Achebe inspired asking life If the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender. As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled all the others. Chinua Achebe punishment oil land
