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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

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Chinua Achebe
Age: 82 †
Born: 1930
Born: November 16
Died: 2013
Died: March 22
Essayist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Short Story Writer
University Teacher
Writer
Albert Chinualumogu Achebe
Aging
Mouths
Words
Speak
Something
People
Sweetness

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Poetry and slave trading cannot be bedfellows. That's where I stand.
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If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings.
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I'm sure if one turned one's mind back from grandiose faults to what is happening to the average man or woman or child in the rural areas, we will probably find that's where the energy for development is.
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Presidents do not go off on leave without telling the country.
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The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.
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An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb
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A coward may cover the ground with his words but when the time comes to fight he runs away.
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I don't care about age very much.
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I am against people reaping where they have not sown. But we have a saying that if you want to eat a toad you should look for a fat and juicy one.
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Africa is to Europe as the picture is to Dorian Gray-a carrier onto whom the master unloads his physical & moral deformities
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And theories are no more than fictions which help us to make sense of experience and which are subject to disconfirmation when their explanations are no longer adequate.
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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.
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It always surprised him when he thought of it later that he did not sink under the load of despair.
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When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.
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It is difficult to express the reality of Ibo society in classical English.
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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.
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I think dialects should be left alone. People should write in whatever dialect they feel they want to write. In the fullness of time, these dialects will sort themselves out.
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When I was in England, I had seen advertisements about typing agencies I had learned that if you really want to make a good impression, you should have your manuscript well typed.
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Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.
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The writer is often faced with two choices--turn away from the reality of life's intimidating complexity or conquer its mystery by battling with it. The writer who chooses the former soon runs out of energy and produces elegantly tired fiction.
Chinua Achebe