I don't care about age very much. I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the perception of aging and the wisdom that often accompanies it.
Chinua Achebe expresses that age should not be a primary concern when evaluating a person's worth or presence. He reminisces about the older individuals from his youth, suggesting that their wisdom, experiences, and vibrant personalities made them appear larger than life, emphasizing that true value lies in one's character and life experiences rather than merely their age.
In practice
In a speech about valuing elderly contributions to society.
In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to feel that the story that I was told about this religion wasn't perhaps completely whole, that something was left out.
Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches!
Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord's holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life - to drive the crowd away from His church.
It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.
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. Being part of that dialogue meant not only sitting at the table but effectively telling the African story from an African perspective - in full earshot of the world.
An angry man is always a stupid man.
There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.
Concision in style, precision in thought, decision in life.
We are born as innocents. We are polluted by advice.
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are
This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside you, brings what you need. There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty. Sit quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more silent.' Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence.
Whatever is done without ostentation, and without the people being witnesses of it, is, in my opinion, most praiseworthy: not that the public eye should be entirely avoided, for good actions desire to be placed in the light; but notwithstanding this, the greatest theater for virtue is conscience.
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