Chinua Achebe Quotes

The white man is very clever. He came quietly with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.

Chinua Achebe

• Together
• Clever

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Quotes to Explore

• Time has lost all meaning in that nightmare alley of the Western world known as the American mind.

  

  Florence King
  • Time
  • World
  • Mind

• During the civilisation and development process of more than 5,000 years, the Chinese nation has made an indelible contribution to the civilisation and advancement of mankind.

  

  Xi Jinping
  • Years
  • Process
  • Chinese

• Shakespeare's villains are fabulous because none of them know that they are villains. Well, sometimes they do.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • Know
  • Sometimes
  • Fabulous

• Excellence is not a skill, it's an attitude.

  

  Ralph Marston
  • Attitude
  • Excellence
  • Skill

• If I can just be thought of as Omari Hardwick who had a really, really solid career, and whose work is appreciated in its own right, I think that would be a great legacy to leave behind.

  

  Omari Hardwick
  • Work
  • Great
  • Career

• To take part in this brothel through the payment of my taxes, that had become to me unbearable.

  

  Yannick Noah
  • Part
  • Taxes
  • Payment

• If you grew up in my generation, you're going to be influenced by Run DMC, the Beastie Boys and also listen to Metallica - it wasn't segregated anymore.

  

  Vanilla Ice
  • Up
  • Generation
  • Listen

• When you are poor, you'll have to think of ways to be better off.

  

  Zong Qinghou
  • Think
  • You
  • Better

• I think an encore is perfectly acceptable, but I find it so weird when people do two or three.

  

  Florence Welch Florence and the Machine
  • People
  • Think
  • Weird

• I originally got into this because of a five-year-old's begrudgery of his teacher. Mrs. Lawlor cast me as a tree, and I was disgusted. I was sure I had more to offer than that. It was like, 'OK, if you want me to be set dressing, fine, I'll take it on the chin but I'll show you - I'm going to be a big actor some day.'

  

  Jack Reynor
  • Day
  • Teacher
  • Tree

• The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.

  

  Salvador Dali
  • Power
  • Always
  • Influence

• When you have a 'solution thinking mindset' - and choose to focus 80% of your thoughts/words on solutions - you will not only be heading more speedily to long-term success, but you will immediately feel better in the moment.

  

  Karen Salmansohn
  • Thinking
  • Long
  • Success

• When the news wants to tell you something is important, they put dramatic theme music behind it. They scare you into watching the story.

  

  Aaron McGruder
  • Music
  • Important
  • News

• As a child, my mother told me lots of fairy stories, many her own invention. She, too, tended to reverse the norm.

  

  Tanith Lee
  • Mother
  • Child
  • Stories

• Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.

  

  Samuel Butler
  • Money
  • Friendship
  • Keep

• The sleeplessness is proven; it eradicates your memory.

  

  Gaby Hoffmann
  • Memory
  • Your
  • Proven

• For me personally, the technology that has taken the most unexpected turn in my lifetime is what I refer to as 'the device formerly known as the cell phone.' I still remember many predictions that by 2000 there would only be about a million cell phone users. Boy, were they ever wrong!

  

  Padmasree Warrior
  • Remember
  • Boy
  • Lifetime

• Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian? If we lose sight of this, the idea of Europe could become a minority interest in its own continent.

  

  Viktor Orban
  • Christian
  • Lose
  • Sight

• I talk funny 'cause I come from Canada.

  

  Katherine Ryan
  • Funny

• Society can transport money from rich to poor only in a leaky bucket.

  

  Arthur Melvin Okun
  • Money
  • Rich
  • Poor

• I was in high school. A couple of my friends and I decided we had to be in a class together where we could fool around, and drama was it because we'd do improvs, beating each other up. They left a year later, and I stayed in and got a knack for it, and enjoyed the whole process.

  

  Adam Beach
  • Up
  • School
  • Friends

• You might have a great fence, a great shoot, run, and swim, but you might get a dodgy horse. Each country supplies the horse; you get 20 minutes to warm up with it, and then you have to do the jumping course. Pentathlon's difficult because everything has to come together.

  

  Chloe Esposito
  • Up
  • Great
  • Country

• Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.

  

  Saint Augustine
  • May
  • Truth
  • Together

• The white man is very clever. He came quietly with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.

  

  Chinua Achebe
  • Together
  • Clever