Quote

We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n'ani ji onwe ya: 'He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.'

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
Keep
Proverb
Others
Mud
Another
Practicals
Cannot
Practical
Without
Stay
Igbo
Must
Hold
Devaluing
Always
Humanity
Concretely
Upon
Trample

More quotes by Chinua Achebe

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I think once you have done all you can to a manuscript, let it find its way in the world.
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A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.
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When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.
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There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
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A man to whom you do a favor will not understand if you say nothing, make no noise, just walk away. You may cause more trouble by refusing a bribe than by accepting it.
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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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Africa is people may seem too simple and too obvious to some of us. But I have found in the course of my travels through the world that the most simple things can still givwe us a lot of trouble, even the brightest among us: this is particularly so in matters concerning Africa.
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When a mad man walks naked, it is his kinsmen who feel shame, not himself.
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If you have leaders who are prepared to incite group against group it is very easy to manufacture reasons and excuses.
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Nigeria has had a complicated colonial history. My work has examined that part of our story extensively.
Chinua Achebe
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Americans, it seems to me, tend to protect their children from the harshness of life, in their interest. That's not the way my people rear their children. They let them experience the world as it is.
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Once you have really done all you can, then you can show it to people. But I find this is increasingly not the case with the younger people. They do a first draft and want somebody to finish it off for them with good advice.
Chinua Achebe
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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
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Stories serve the purpose of consolidating whatever gains people or their leaders have made or imagine they have made in their existing journey thorough the world.
Chinua Achebe
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Whenever I try to do anything on a typewriter, it's like having this machine between me and the words what comes out is not quite what would come out if I were scribbling.
Chinua Achebe
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My weapon is literature
Chinua Achebe
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We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own.
Chinua Achebe
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Presidents do not go off on leave without telling the country.
Chinua Achebe
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There's no lack of writers writing novels in America, about America. Therefore, it seems to me it would be wasteful for me to add to that huge number of people writing here when there are so few people writing about somewhere else.
Chinua Achebe
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What you must accept is that your life is not going to be the same while you are writing.
Chinua Achebe