Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes

I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

• Power
• Language
• Prison
• African

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Quotes to Explore

• Neither science, nor the politics in power, nor the mass media, nor business, nor the law nor even the military are in a position to define or control risks rationally.

  

  Ulrich Beck
  • Business
  • Power
  • Science

• The point - the power to hurt - of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

  

  Abraham Lincoln
  • Power
  • Hurt
  • Lies

• I had something I was trying to say and sometimes the message is an easy transmission and sometimes it's a difficult one but I love the power of saying it so I'm gonna do it whether it's hard or easy.

  

  Faith Ringgold
  • Trying
  • Love
  • Power

• I was very insecure approaching the idea of directing a feature film. I told myself I would not move until I felt I was moving in power rather than moving in desperation to make a movie.

  

  Nate Parker
  • Power
  • Movie
  • Myself

• If only I could step back into the time of old movies, if only I could be given the opportunity to do what Katharine Hepburn did or what Rosalind Russell did. Those kinds of characters, that kind of patter, that kind of language, that kind of script. They don't exist any more.

  

  Kari Matchett
  • Time
  • Opportunity
  • Language

• I am lucky that the Western world chooses me to play roles in their movies an television, whatever language it may be.

  

  Irrfan Khan
  • World
  • Play
  • Language

• I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.

  

  Ignatius of Antioch
  • Power
  • Death
  • Earth

• Negative freedom is freedom from - freedom from oppression, whether it's a colonial power or addiction to alcohol oppressing you. You need to be freed from negative freedom. Positive freedom is freedom for, freedom to be. And that's what's routinely ignored today.

  

  Os Guinness
  • Power
  • Today
  • Freedom

• The huge difference in my lifetime is that you can just go up to somebody and make a pass. You couldn't do that in the 1950s if you were gay. There were secret handshakes, a secret language. There was nowhere you could go to be romantic outside of people's houses.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • People
  • Up
  • Language

• Language that is designed to dehumanize has consequences.

  

  Maajid Nawaz
  • Language
  • Consequences

• We must use all the tools of American power in resolving disputes, including diplomacy. And we must have sufficient congressional debate and oversight before ever putting another U.S. solider in harm's way.

  

  Barbara Lee
  • Power
  • American
  • Tools

• It's not possible for two countries to be the leading dominant political power at the same time.

  

  Fareed Zakaria
  • Time
  • Power
  • Political

• Given the daunting challenges that we face, it's important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.

  

  Valerie Jarrett
  • Important
  • Power
  • Day

• Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden.

  

  Karl Kraus
  • Mother
  • Thought
  • Language

• My main aim has always been to do good quality films with roles that have some substance. With Power and Beauty there were loads of things that I liked about the movie, which made me opt for it.

  

  Natasha Henstridge
  • Good
  • Power
  • Movie

• The power of the ADA is that it ended up changing my life long before I ever imagined it would.

  

  Tammy Duckworth
  • Life
  • Up
  • Long

• The power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world. The faces of young people are the faces of our past, our present and our future. No segment in the society can match with the power, idealism, enthusiasm and courage of the young people.

  

  Kailash Satyarthi
  • People
  • World
  • Power

• There had so lately been a large force of Spanish cavalry at the village, which had made a great impression on the minds of the young men, as to their power, consequence, which my appearance with 20 infantry was by no means calculated to remove.

  

  Zebulon Pike
  • Great
  • Men
  • Power

• To its neocon architects, Iraq was always about empire, hegemony, Pax Americana, global democracy – about getting hold of America’s power to make the Middle East safe for Sharon and themselves glorious and famous.

  

  Pat Buchanan
  • Power
  • America
  • Democracy

• To love without role, without power plays, is revolution.

  

  Rita Mae Brown
  • Love
  • Power
  • Play

• [A]s if it were not the masterful will which subjugates the forces of nature to be the genii of the lamp... that forces a life-thought into a pregnant word or phrase, and sends it ringing through the ages!

  

  William Mathews
  • Force
  • Pregnant
  • Phrases

• I don't like the clean-shaven boy with the necktie and the good job. I like desperate men, men with broken teeth and broken minds and broken ways. They interest me. They are full of surprises and explosions.

  

  Charles Bukowski
  • Good
  • Men
  • Job

• The street is where we all learn. I played organized football growing up as well, but when that was over, I went right to the street. I remember twisting my ankles, breaking my thumb, I hurt everything when I was little playing street ball.

  

  Champ Bailey
  • Remember
  • Hurt
  • Learn

• I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power.

  

  Ngugi wa Thiong'o
  • Power
  • Language
  • Prison