Quote

It is as though the ancestors who made language and knew from what bestiality its use rescued them are saying to us: Beware of interfering with its purpose! For when language is seriously interfered with, when it is disjoined from truth, be it from mere incompetence or worse, from malice, horrors can descend again on mankind.

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
Language
Horror
Horrors
Use
Worse
Incompetence
Truth
Mere
Malice
Made
Mankind
Beware
Bestiality
Saying
Ancestors
Interfered
Knew
Ancestor
Rescued
Though
Interfere
Interfering
Purpose
Seriously
Descend

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An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb
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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.
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I'm amazed when I think about students today. They know from day one what they are going to be. We didn't. We just coasted. We just knew that things would work out.
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When brothers fight to death a stranger inherit their father’s estate
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A kinsman in trouble had to be saved, not blamed anger against a brother was felt in the flesh, not in the bone.
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The world is large,” said Okonkwo. “I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife and her family.” “That cannot be,” said Machi. “You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies.
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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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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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It is only the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence.The story is our escortwithout it,we are blind.Does the blind man own his escort?No,neither do we the storyrather,it is the story that owns us.
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That we are surrounded by deep mysteries is known to all but the incurably ignorant.
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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.
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What a country needs to do is be fair to all its citizens - whether people are of a different ethnicity or gender.
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Children are very fair minded, they really are.
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When we hear a house has fallen do we ask if the ceiling fell with it?
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My weapon is literature
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What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue. A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories- prose, poetry, essays, and books for our children. That was my overall goal.
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Presidents do not go off on leave without telling the country.
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When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.
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When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.
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In my definition I am a protest writer, with restraint.
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