Things Fall Apart Okonkwo Quotes:

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.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (2009). “Things Fall Apart: Authoritative Text, Contexts and Criticism”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

topic: Brother, Clever, Fall, Very Clever, Okonkwo

Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate that the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1996). “Things Fall Apart”, p.9, Heinemann

topic: Heart, Men, Okonkwo, Capricious, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1996). “Things Fall Apart”, p.37, Heinemann

topic: Children, Men, Okonkwo, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Shining, Sun, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1996). “Things Fall Apart”, p.118, Heinemann

topic: Home, Moon, Men, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

Men have learned to shoot without missing their mark and I have learned to fly without perching on a twig.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1992). “Things Fall Apart”, Everyman's Library

topic: Men, Missing, Twigs, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

We have heard stories about white men who make the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true.

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Strong, Powerful, Men, Strong Drink, Abomination

We shall all live. We pray for life, children, a good harvest and happiness. You will have what is good for you and I will have what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the egret perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (2009). “Things Fall Apart: Authoritative Text, Contexts and Criticism”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

topic: Children, Wings, Kites, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1996). “Things Fall Apart”, p.109, Heinemann

topic: Fire, Okonkwo, Ashes, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

The world is large,” said Okonkwo. “I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife and her family.” “That cannot be,” said Machi. “You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (2009). “Things Fall Apart: Authoritative Text, Contexts and Criticism”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

topic: Baby, Children, Lying, Okonkwo, Lying Men

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.

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Kings, Children, Hands, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

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

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Art, Oil, Conversation, Palm Oil, Art Of Conversation

A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (2009). “Things Fall Apart: Authoritative Text, Contexts and Criticism”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

topic: Life, Men, Transition, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1996). “Things Fall Apart”, p.6, Heinemann

topic: Kings, Children, Hands, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Dry, Bones, Old Woman, Okonkwo, Dry Bones

There is no story that is not true.

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Stories, Abomination, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

At the most one could say that his chi or ... personal god was good. But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1996). “Things Fall Apart”, p.19, Heinemann

topic: Men, Okonkwo, People, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

Beware Okonkwo!" she warned. "Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware!

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (2009). “Things Fall Apart: Authoritative Text, Contexts and Criticism”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

topic: Men, Okonkwo, Doe, Exchanging, Things Fall Apart Important

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.

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Should Have, Numbers, Stressed, Large Crowds, Mr Brown

When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Inspirational, Life, Moon, Things Fall Apart Important, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

If I hold her hand she says, ‘Don’t touch!’ If I hold her foot she says ‘Don’t touch!’ But when I hold her waist-beads she pretends not to know.

- Chinua Achebe

source: Chinua Achebe (1996). “Things Fall Apart”, p.84, Heinemann

topic: Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

"You sound as if you question the authority and the decision of the Oracle, who said he should die." "I do not. Why should I? But the Oracle did not ask me to carry out its decision." [...] "The Earth cannot punish me for obeying her mesenger," Okonkwo said. "A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm."

- Chinua Achebe

source: "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, Fawcett Premier edition, (p. 64), 1969.

topic: Mother, Children, Yams, Okonkwo, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

- William Butler Yeats

source: "The Second Coming" l. 1 (1921)

topic: Fall, Blood, Passionate, Falcon, Things Fall Apart Important