Quotes from book
No Longer at Ease

No Longer at Ease

No Longer at Ease is a 1960 novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is the story of an Igbo man, Obi Okonkwo, who leaves his village for an education in Britain and then a job in the Nigerian colonial civil service, but is conflicted between his African culture and Western lifestyle and ends up taking a bribe. The novel is the second work in what is sometimes referred to as the "African trilogy", following Things Fall Apart and preceding Arrow of God. Things Fall Apart concerns the struggle of Obi Okonkwo's grandfather Okonkwo against the changes brought by the English.


Chinua Achebe photo

“When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.”

Source: No Longer at Ease (1960), Chapter 10 (p. 95)

Chinua Achebe photo
Chinua Achebe photo
Chinua Achebe photo

“A man who lived on the banks of the Niger should not wash his hands with spittle.”

Source: No Longer at Ease (1960), Chapter 1 (p. 17)

Chinua Achebe photo

“If one finger brings oil it soils the others.”

Source: No Longer at Ease (1960), Chapter 7 (p. 75)

Chinua Achebe photo
Chinua Achebe photo

Similar authors

Chinua Achebe photo
Chinua Achebe 63
Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic 1930–2013
Wole Soyinka photo
Wole Soyinka 11
Nigerian writer
Cesare Pavese photo
Cesare Pavese 137
Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator
Marcel Proust photo
Marcel Proust 41
French novelist, critic, and essayist
Christopher Morley photo
Christopher Morley 30
American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet
Umberto Eco photo
Umberto Eco 120
Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic…
Mario Benedetti photo
Mario Benedetti 4
Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet
Guillaume Apollinaire photo
Guillaume Apollinaire 28
French poet
James Joyce photo
James Joyce 191
Irish novelist and poet
Rudyard Kipling photo
Rudyard Kipling 200
English short-story writer, poet, and novelist