Real tragedy is never resolved. It goes on hopelessly for ever. Conventional tragedy is too easy. The hero dies and we feel a purging of the emotions.
You cannot plant greatness as you plant yams or maize. The great tree chooses where to grow and we find it there, so it is with the greatness in men.
He said life was like a bowl of wormwood which one sips a little at a time world without end. He understood the nature of tragedy.
Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world like the young antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come.
He is free and yet no power can break his bondage. He is free of men but bonded to a god.
The moon he saw that day was as thin as an orphan fed grudgingly by a cruel foster-mother.
My view is that any serving President foolish enough to lay his head on a coin should know he is inciting people to take it off; the head I mean.
One idea in particular: that we may accept a limitation on our actions but never, under no circumstances, must we accept restriction on our thinking.
People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.
Writing has always been a serious business for me. I felt it was a moral obligation. A major concern of the time was the absence of the African voice.
We are sending you to learn book. Enjoyment can wait. Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world.
In such a regime, I say you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murderer in the chest—without asking to be paid.
And I felt envious. I had no mother to buy head-ties for, and although I had a father, giving things to him was like pouring a little water into a dried-up well.
A man should hold his compound together, not plant dissension among his children.
A man does not speak a lie to his son. Remember that always. To say My father told me is to swear the greatest oath.
Nations were fostered as much by structures as by laws and revolutions. These structures where they exist now are the pride of their nations.
The second generation of educated Nigerians had gone back to eating pounded yams or garri with their fingers for the good reason that it tasted better that way. Also for the even better reason that they were not as scared as the first generation of being called uncivilised.
You can always tell, because they are beautiful with a beauty that is not of this world. You catch a glimpse of them with the tail of your eye, then they disappear in the crowd.
It was only a week ago, but already it seemed to be separated from the present by a vast emptiness. This emptiness deepened with the passage of time.