Quotes from book
Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart is a novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Published in 1958, its story chronicles pre-colonial life in the south-eastern part of Nigeria and the arrival of the Europeans during the late nineteenth century. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. In 1962, Achebe's debut novel was first published in the UK by William Heinemann Ltd. Things Fall Apart was the first work published in Heinemann's African Writers Series.

“You do not know me,’ said Tortoise. ‘I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others makes trouble for himself.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

“Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, called the converts the excrement of the clan, and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 16 (p. 133)

“The white man is very clever. He came quietly 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 book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 20 (p. 162)

“There is no story that is not true, […] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Variant: The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.
Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 15 (p. 130)
Context: "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." [said Obierika]
"There is no story that is not true," said Uchendu. "The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others. We have albinos among us. Do you not think that they came to our clan by mistake, that they have strayed from their way to a land where everybody is like them?"

“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 book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

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

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 1 (p. 11)

“When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 2 (p. 14)

“A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

“If you don't like my story, write your own”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Variant: If you don't like someone's story, write your own.
Source: Things Fall Apart

“There is no story that is not true.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

“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. And not only his chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 4 (p. 29)

“As a man danced so the drums were beaten for him.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 22 (p. 170)

“It always surprised him when he thought of it later that he did not sink under the load of despair.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

“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 book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

“A proud heart can survive general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 3 (p. 27)

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

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

“It was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become left-handed in old age.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 14 (pp. 120–121)

“Eneke the bird was asked why he was always on the wing and he replied: "Men have learned to shoot without missing their mark and I have learned to fly without perching on a twig."”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 24 (p. 203)

“The land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors. There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. 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 book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 13 (p. 115)

“After such treatment it would think twice before coming again, unless it was one of the stubborn ones who returned, carrying the stamp of their mutilation--a missing finger or perhaps a dark line where the medicine man's razor had cut them.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 9 (p. 75)

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