I wouldn't have wanted anyone to teach me how to write. That's my own taste. I prefer to stumble on it.

Just think of the work you've set yourself to do, and do it as well as you can.

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

You cannot plant greatness as you plant yams or maize. Who ever planted an iroko tree — the greatest tree in the forest? You may collect all the iroko seeds in the world, open the soil and put them there. It will be in vain. The great tree chooses where to grow and we find it there, so it is with the greatness in men.

A boy sent by his father to steal does not go stealthily but breaks the door with his feet.

In the vocabulary of certain radical theorists contradictions are given the status of some deadly disease to which their opponents alone can succumb. But contradictions are the very stuff of life. If there had been a little dash of contradiction among the Gadarene swine some of them might have been saved from drowning.

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