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When a new saying gets to the land of empty men, they lose their heads over it.

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
Lose
Loses
Saying
Land
Men
Heads
Empty
Gets

More quotes by Chinua Achebe

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The Novelist As Teacher”: “I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past – with all its imperfections – was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them.
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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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When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.
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Men have learned to shoot without missing their mark and I have learned to fly without perching on a twig.
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He is a fool who treats his brother worse than a stranger.
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I don't praise my people. I am their greatest critic.
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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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One reason why I am quite angry with what is happening in Nigeria today is that everything has collapsed. If I decide to go back now, there will be so many problems - where will I find the physical therapy and other things that I now require?
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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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What a man does not know is greater than he.
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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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This is not pessimism but rather casting a cold eye on things. It is only one man's story, and I think that things will go better, but difficulties exist and nothing is served by hiding them under a poetic veil or under a lyricism of the past. I am against slogans.
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When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth
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I have so many ideas there are so many things that need to be done, so many possibilities, you know one is terribly excited, but at the same time, you're almost confused, because you don't know where to begin.
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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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Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality.
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The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.
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I'm very primitive I write with a pen.
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When Rimbaud became a slave trader, he stopped writing poetry.
Chinua Achebe
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The man that brings ant-infested faggots into his hut should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit.
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