The writer cannot expect to be excused from the task of reeducation and regeneration that must be done. In fact, he should march right in front.

When I began going to school and learned to read, I encountered stories of other people and other lands.

Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.

I prefer to go on trying all kinds of things, not to be told, This is the way it is done.

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.

Presidents do not go off on leave without telling the country.

We don't want to be simply wandering about without some kind of reason, we want our presence here to have a purpose, and that we are not going to end here, we are going to proceed somewhere else, and also that we didn't begin here, that we began somewhere else and all that living, all that elaborate account of our presence seems to be quite basic to our nature and so this is what literacy taps into.