Chinua Achebe's Words on Marble 1

Chinua Achebe died at the age of 82 but his works live on. I have read almost all his books in the University as an English Graduate. His style of writing is different and simple.  He had been a source of inspiration to many writers and even critics. Later i will write on some of his books but for now, just enjoy some of his quotes that are quite interesting and at times amusing.

Democracy is not something you put away for 10 years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again." "One of the truest tests of

integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised."



"Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."

"What's important is that we recognise the falsehood of the notion that the Third World should be abandoned because it's a waste of time."

"People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories."

"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."

"I wouldn't have wanted anyone to teach me how to write. I prefer to stumble on it."

"If you don't like someone's story, write your own."

"A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself".

''Nigeria had people of great quality, and what befell us — the corruption, the political ineptitude, the war — was a great disappointment and truly devastating to those of us who witnessed it."

"There is no story that is not true."

"Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination; it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity."

"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 escort; without it, we are blind. Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the story; rather, it is the story that owns us."

"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 holds another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down."

"When we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly."

"Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches!"

"While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary."

"To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them."

"Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am – and what I need – is something I have to find out myself."

"My weapon is literature"

"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."

"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. There is this complexity which seems to me to be part of the meaning of existence and everything we value."

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