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Quote by Chinua Achebe

“When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don't just turn it off one day.”

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Nigerian novelist, poet, literary critic, widely regarded as one of the greatest African writers of the 20th century. Chinua Achebe is known for his profound insights into colonialism and African culture, with works such as 'Things Fall Apart' and 'Arrow of God'. more

“Battles, revolutions, pestilence, famine, and death, are never the effect of those natural causes, which we experience. Prodigies,omens, oracles, judgments, quite obscure the few natural events, that are intermingled with them. But as the former grow thinner every pagewe soon learn, that there is nothing mysterious or supernatural in the case, but that all proceeds from the usual propensity of mankind towards the marvellous, and that, though this inclination may at intervals receive a check from sense and learning, it can never be thoroughly extirpated.”

“[The sceptic] must acknowledge, if he will acknowledge any thing, that all human life must perish, were his principles to prevail.All discourse, all action would immediately cease, and men remain in a total lethargy, till the necessities of nature, unsatisfied, put an end to their miserable existence.”

Ifs Men Humans Ends Action Existence Principles Cease Miserable Human Life Acknowledge Skepticism Discourse Unsatisfied Lethargy Sceptic

Book:An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion

Source: An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion

“The great subverter of Pyrrhonism or the excessive principles of scepticism is action, and employment, and the occupations of common life.”

Action Common Principles Employment Occupation Skepticism Scepticism Common Life

Book:Essays and Treatises on Philosophical Subjects

Source: Essays and Treatises on Philosophical Subjects

“There is, indeed a more mitigated scepticism or academical philosophy, which may be both durable and useful, and which may, in part, be the result of this Pyrrhonism, or excessive scepticism, when its undistinguished doubts are corrected by common sense and reflection.”

May Philosophy Results Common Doubt Reflection Common Sense Skepticism Scepticism

Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature

Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature

“Virtue, like wholesome food, is better than poisons, however corrected.”

Virtue Food Poison Wholesome Food

Book:The philosophical works of David Hume

Source: The philosophical works of David Hume

“It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. It is not contrary to reason for me to choose my total ruin, to prevent the least uneasiness of an Indian, or person wholly unknown to me. It is as little contrary to reason to prefer even my own acknowledged lesser good to my greater, and have a more ardent affection for the former than the latter.”

World Littles Persons Reason Whole My Own Greater Destruction Fingers Affection Contrary Whole World Ruins Former Indian Latter Preference Ardent Uneasiness

Author:David Hume

“Let us become thoroughly sensible of the weakness, blindness, and narrow limits of human reason: Let us duly consider its uncertainty and endless contrarieties, even in subjects of common life and practice.... When these topics are displayed in their full light, as they are by some philosophers and almost all divines; who can retain such confidence in this frail faculty of reason as to pay any regard to its determinations in points so sublime, so abstruse, so remote from common life and experience?”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)

“There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good-will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us.”

Source: The Natural History of Religion

Quote by Chinua Achebe

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