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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

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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
Men
Tortoise
Tortoises
Learned
Changed
Trouble
Makes
Others

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He is a fool who treats his brother worse than a stranger.
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The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.
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Most writers who are beginners, if they are honest with themselves, will admit that they are praying for a readership as they begin to write. But it should be the quality of the craft, not the audience, that should be the greatest motivating factor.
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I think the language that we use in dealing with one another is very important. And even if I am called upon to bring out some money to support a regime, and I am entitled to say I do not like what that regime does and obviously I am not going to put money there - you cannot really say this is wrong or this is unreasonable.
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It is difficult to express the reality of Ibo society in classical English.
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Art is man's constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him.
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Do you blame a vulture for perching over a carcass?
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A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.
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An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb
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Mosquito [...] had asked Ear to marry him, whereupon Ear fell on the floor in uncontrollable laughter. How much longer do you think you will live? she asked. You are already a skeleton. Mosquito went away humiliated, and any time he passed her way he told Ear that he was still alive.
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[Would] a sensible man spit out the juicy morsel that good fortune put in his mouth?
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Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity.
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When Rimbaud became a slave trader, he stopped writing poetry.
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No man however great is greater than his people
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Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
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The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.
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Writing has always been a serious business for me. I felt it was a moral obligation. A major concern of the time was the absence of the African voice. Being part of that dialogue meant not only sitting at the table but effectively telling the African story from an African perspective - in full earshot of the world.
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When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk
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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.
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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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