“Our histories cling to us. We are shaped by where we come from.”

—  Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Our histories cling to us. We are shaped by where we come from." by Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie?
Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo
Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie 97
Nigerian writer 1977

Related quotes

Sarah Dessen photo

“Despite our differences, we did have a history. No one understood where I was coming from the way he did.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Marshall McLuhan photo

“We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
Winston S. Churchill photo

“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Speech to the House of Commons (October 28, 1943), on plans for the rebuilding of the Chamber (destroyed by an enemy bomb May 10, 1941), in Never Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. 358 ISBN 1401300561
The Second World War (1939–1945)

Terry Brooks photo

“What we have in life that we can count on is who we are and where we come from… For better or worse, that is what we have to sustain us in our endeavors, to buttress us in our darker moments, and to remind us of our identity. Without those things, we are adrift.”

Terry Brooks book A Knight of the Word

A Knight of the Word

Arthur O'Shaughnessy photo

“But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
Of the glorious futures we see”

Arthur O'Shaughnessy Ode

Music and Moonlight (1874), Ode
Context: But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing:
O men! it must ever be
That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing,
A little apart from ye.
We are afar with the dawning
And the suns that are not yet high,
And out of the infinite morning
Intrepid you hear us cry —
How, spite of your human scorning,
Once more God's future draws nigh,
And already goes forth the warning
That ye of the past must die.

John Ruysbroeck photo

“Knowledge of ourselves teaches us whence we come, where we are, and whither we are going. We come from God, and we are in exile.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

Quoted in Ruysbroeck the Admirable (1925) by Alfred Wautier d'Aygalliers and Fred Rothwell, p. 175

Joni Madraiwiwi photo

“We need to move forward and beyond the point where we endlessly pursue the demons bequeathed us by our history.”

Joni Madraiwiwi (1957–2016) Fijian politician

Opening address to the Tourism Forum at the Sheraton Resort, 7 July 2005.

James Baldwin photo

“The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Source: The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985

Ben Carson photo

“It does not matter where we come from or what we look like. If we recognize our abilities, are willing to learn and to use what we know in helping others, we will always have a place in the world.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

“History is hereditary only in this way: we, all of us, inherit everything, and then we choose what to cherish, what to disavow, and what do do next, which is why it's worth trying to know where things come from.”

Jill Lepore (1966) American historian

Related topics