Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Wole SoyinkaRead
I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects an individual's inner conflict and complex relationship with violence and conflict.
Wole Soyinka's quote expresses a personal tendency to be drawn to violent situations, suggesting an innate curiosity or engagement with the darker aspects of humanity and society. This attraction may reflect deeper themes of resistance, social justice, or the human condition, indicating that violence, despite its destructive nature, can compel attention and provoke thought, challenging individuals to confront uncomfortable truths.
Themes
ViolenceAttractionHumanityConflictCuriosity
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on human psychology, one might quote Soyinka to emphasize the complexities of human attraction to chaos.
More from Wole Soyinka
All quotes βTrading 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
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
I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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As for myself: I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or any human being, that we were all machines, doomed to collide and collide and collide. For want of anything better to do, we became fans of collisions. Sometimes I wrote well about collisions, which meant I was a writing machine in good repair. Sometimes I wrote badly, which meant I was a writing machine in bad repair. I no more harbored sacredness than did a Pontiac, a mousetrap, or a South Bend Lathe.
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