Chinua Achebe Quotes

لمن تكون الحياة حلوة، لمن تكون الحياة حلوة؟
ليس هناك أحد تكون الحياة له حلوة
وليس لدي أكثر من هذا لأقوله لك

If ever a man deserved his success, that man was Okonkwo. At an early age he had achieved fame as the greatest wrestler in all the land. That was not luck. At the most one could say that his chi or personal god was good. But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man say yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed. And not only his chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands.

That we may accept a limitation on our actions but never, under no circumstances, must we accept restriction on our thinking.

الرجل الذي يُبدي احتراماً للعظماء إنما يمهد الطريق لعظمته هو

Africa never spared those who did what they liked instead of what they had to do.

و بينما وقفت تحملق في الظلمة المستديرة التي ابتلعتهما, تساقطت الدموع بغزارة من عينيها, وأقسمت في داخلها أنها إذا سمعت ازنما تصرخ فستندفع إلى داخل الكهف لتدافع عنها ضد جميع آلهة العالم. لا بل تموت معها.

There was another epidemic that was not talked about much, a silent scourge — the explosion of mental illness: major depression, psychosis, schizophrenia, manic-depression, personality disorders, grief response, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, etc. — on a scale none of us had ever witnessed.

Chief Nanga was a born politician; he could get away with almost anything he said or did. And as long as men are swayed by their hearts and stomachs and not their heads the Chief Nangas of the world will continue to get away with anything. He had that rare gift of making people feel - even while he was saying harsh things to them - that there was not a drop of ill will in his entire frame. I remember the day he was telling his ministerial colleague over the telephone in my presence that he distrusted our young university people and that he would rather work with a European. I knew I was hearing terrible things but somehow I couldn't bring myself to take the man seriously. He had been so open and kind to me and not in the least distrustful. The greatest criticism a man like him seemed capable of evoking in our country was an indulgent: 'Make you no min' am.

انصت إلّي. إنك لست غريبًا في أوموفيا وتعلم أن آباءنا قد قرروا أنه قبل أن نزرع أي محصول في الأرض علينا أن نكرس أسبوعًا لا يتفوّه فيه الشخص بكلمة نابية لجاره. إننا نعيش في سلام مع بني جلدتنا لنكرم آلهة الأرض العظيمة التي لا تنمو محاصيلنا دون بركتها. لقد أتيت شرًا عظيمًا

Praise bounteous providence if you will that grants even an ogre a tiny glow-worm tenderness encapsulated in icy caverns of a cruel heart or else despair for in the very germ of that kindred love is lodged the perpetuity of evil

The poor of the world may be guilty of this and that particular fault or foolishness, but if we are fair we will admit that nothing they have done or left undone quite explains all the odds we see stacked up against them. We are sometimes tempted to look upon the poor as so many ne'er-do-wells we can simply ignore. But they will return to haunt our peace, because they are greater than their badge of suffering, because they are human.

People are wrong when they tell you that Conrad was on the side of Africans because his story showed great compassion towards them. Africans are not really served by his compassion, whatever it means; they ask for one thing alone – to be seen for what they are: human beings. Conrad pulls back from granting them this favour in Heart of Darkness.

the clock is ticking

A person who has not secured a place on the floor should not begin to look for a mat.

For whom is it well, for whom is it well.
There is no one for whom it is well.