Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Chinua Achebe

Quote by Chinua Achebe

“It is as though the ancestors who made language and knew from what bestiality its use rescued them are saying to us: Beware of interfering with its purpose! For when language is seriously interfered with, when it is disjoined from truth, be it from mere incompetence or worse, from malice, horrors can descend again on mankind.”

Quote by Chinua Achebe

Create image

Author

Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe

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

You May Also Like

“To answer oppression with appropriate resistance requires knowledge of two kinds: in the first place, self-knowledge by the victim, which means awareness that oppression exists, an awareness that the victim has fallen from a great height of glory or promise into the present depths; secondly, the victim must know who the enemy is. He must know his oppressor's real name, not an alias, a pseudonym, or a nom de plume!”

KnowsFirstsKindMeanTwoRealSelfNamesAnswersEnemyAwarenessPromiseGloryVictimDepthResistanceOppressionHeightFallenAppropriateSelf KnowledgeOppressorsAliasesGreat HeightsPseudonyms
Book:The Education of a British-Protected Child
Create image

“The reality of today, different as it is from the reality of my society one hundred years ago, is and can be important if we have the energy and the inclination to challenge it, to go out and engage with its peculiarities, with the things that we do not understand. The real danger is the tendency to retreat into the obvious, the tendency to be frightened by the richness of the world and to clutch what we always have understood.”

IfsWorldYearsImportantDifferentRealRealityTodayEnergyChallengesDangerUnderstoodHundredYears AgoObviousTendenciesFrightenedRetreatInclinationRichnessClutch
Book:There Was a Country: A Memoir
Create image

“It's so easy to get into the same routine. A novel every two years; perhaps, improving technique. But I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in doing something fundamentally important--and therefore, it needs time. And what I've been doing, really, is avoiding this pressure to get into the habit of one novel a year. This is what is expected of novelists. And I have never been really too much concerned with doing what is expected of novelists, or writers, or artists. I want to do what I believe is important.”

WantNeedsWritingYearsBelieveTwoImportantArtistI BelieveEasyNovelToo MuchHabitConcernedPressureExpectedTechniqueNovelistsTwo YearsRoutineNot InterestedImprovingAvoidingEasy To GetTime Of Need
Author:Chinua Achebe
Create image