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Anybody who wants to rule a group will find that if this group is quarreling among themselves they leave you alone.

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
Leave
Wants
Alone
Quarreling
Find
Group
Rule
Anybody
Among
Groups

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When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.
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The most awful thing about power is not that it corrupts absolutely but that it makes people so utterly boring, so predictable.
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...when we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.
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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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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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What is modesty but inverted pride?
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A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.
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When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.
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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 functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.
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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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Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.
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People go to Africa and confirm what they already have in their heads and so they fail to see what is there in front of them.
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The impatient idealist says: 'Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.' But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.
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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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If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings.
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Do you blame a vulture for perching over a carcass?
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[Would] a sensible man spit out the juicy morsel that good fortune put in his mouth?
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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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...Nothing puzzles God
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