Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Wole SoyinkaRead
My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Engaging with art expands our understanding of humanity and enriches our lives.
Wole Soyinka expresses that immersing oneself in various art forms, such as poetry, painting, and music, broadens one's perspective on humanity. He highlights that these artistic experiences, which may not directly address human struggles, still contribute significantly to personal enrichment and understanding of the human condition.
Themes
ArtHumanityEnrichmentPoetryMusicPainting
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of art on society, this quote can be used to illustrate how art shapes our understanding of others.
More from Wole Soyinka
All quotes →Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent.
Wole SoyinkaRead
A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal.
Wole SoyinkaRead
I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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Governments have always been wary of the arts because they're wayward and ambiguous and because they deal with feelings rather than facts.
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