Things Fall Apart Quotes

Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. (7)

“Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand, before it shines on those who kneel under them.” (7-8)

Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. (8)

It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. (13)

“And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm.” (17)

“Nna ayi,” he said. “I have brought you this little kola. As our people say, a man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.” (19)

Anyone seeing Chielo in ordinary life would hardly believe she was the same person who prophesied when the spirit of Agbala was upon her. (49)

Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell, and which she no doubt still told to her younger children. (53)

“Yes, Umuofia has decided to kill him. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it. They will take him outside Umuofia as is the custom, and kill him there. But I want you to have nothing to do with it. He calls you father.” (57)

How could she know that Ekwefi’s bitterness did not flow outwards to others but inwards into her own soul; that she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her? (79)

The priestess screamed, “Beware, Okonkwo!” she warned. “Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware!” (101)

The land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors. There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. (122)

And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender. As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others. (125)

But it was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become left-handed in old age. (131)

“It’s true that a child belongs to its father, but when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme.” (134)

“Those were good days when a man had friends in distant clans. Your generation does not know that. You stay at home, afraid of your next-door neighbor. Even a man’s motherland is strange to him nowadays.” (137)

“The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.” (141)

“We have been sent by this great God to ask you to leave your wicked ways and false gods and turn to him so that you may be saved when you die,” he said. (145)

“We do not ask for wealth because he that has health and children will also have wealth. We do not pray to have more money but to have more kinsmen. We are better than animals because we have kinsmen.” (165)

“You do not know what it is to speak with one voice. And what is the result? An abominable religion has settled among you. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly turns on his master. I fear for you; I fear for the clan.” (167)

The clan was like a lizard; if it lost its tail it soon grew another. (171)

“How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” (176)

“Worthy men are no more,” Okonkwo sighed as he remembered those days. “Isike will never forget how we slaughtered them in that war. We killed twelve of their men and they killed only two of ours. Before the end of the fourth market week they were suing for peace. Those were the days when men were men.” (200)

“All our gods are weeping, Idemili is weeping, Ogwuguw is weeping, Agbala is weeping, and all the others. Our dead fathers are weeping because of the shameful sacrilege they are suffering and the abomination we have all seen with our eyes.” (203)

“We must root out this evil. And if our brothers take the side of evil we must root them out, too. And we must do it now. We must bail this water now that it is only ankle-deep....” (204)

“That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog.” (208)

He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger. (209)