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.
Interpretation
A meaningful life can lead others to act courageously in the face of injustice.
Chinua Achebe's quote reflects on the profound impact one life can have on another, suggesting that a truly good life is one that inspires others to take bold actions against wrongdoing, even at great personal risk. The idea of shooting the murderer symbolizes a strong response to injustice, indicating that a legacy of inspiration may ignite a sense of duty in others to confront evil, emphasizing the importance of living a life of purpose and courage.
In practice
In a speech about activism, one might say, 'As Achebe reminds us, living a life of purpose can inspire others to stand up against injustice.'
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.
If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering.
You are a coward when you even seem to have backed down from a thing you openly set out to do
I suffered from post-natal depression after Rowan was born. I had a healthy, beautiful baby girl and I couldn't look at her. I couldn't hold her, smile at her. All I wanted was to disappear and die.
What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
I don't like standing near the edge of a platform when an express train is passing through. I like to stand right back and if possible get a pillar between me and the train. I don't like to stand by the side of a ship and look down into the water. A second's action would end everything. A few drops of desperation.
Fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.
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