Quote

Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior. The story outlives the sound of the war drum... The story is our escort. Without it we are blind... It is the thing that sets us apart from cattle.

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
Thing
Blind
Continue
Outlives
Beyond
Escort
Story
Drum
Sound
Cattle
War
Sets
Stories
Warrior
Without
Apart

More quotes by Chinua Achebe

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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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A man who lived on the banks of the Niger should not wash his hands with spittle.
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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 good leader for instance is somebody like Nelson Mandela. I do not have seen such people coming every generation, maybe every ten generations, every hundred generations. People who are miracle workers.
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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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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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One would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast.
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Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist. That this simple truth is glossed over in criticisms of his work is due to the fact that white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its manifestations go completely unremarked.
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If you were to loose the habit of making the effort to get the book and read the words one by one you would have lost something terribly important. So I think that we have a task to ensure that this doesn't happen.
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Oh, the most important thing about myself is that my life has been full of changes. Therefore, when I observe the world, I don't expect to see it just like I was seeing the fellow who lives in the next room.
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A pen on paper is the ideal way for me. I am not really very comfortable with machines I never learned to type very well.
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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 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.
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In such a regime, I say, you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murderer in the chest-without asking to be paid.
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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 damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair.
Chinua Achebe
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We do not seek to hurt any man, but if any man seeks to hurt us may he break his neck.
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Those whose kernels were cracked by benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.
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After a war life catches desperately at passing hints of normalcy like vines entwining a hollow twig.
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I'm a practised writer now. But when I began, I had no idea what this was going to be. I just knew that there was something inside me that wanted me to tell who I was, and that would have come out even if I didn't want it.
Chinua Achebe