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Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.
As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.
As our people say, a man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.
Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching.
How could she know that Ekwefi’s bitterness did not flow outwards to others but inwards into her own soul; that she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her any?
If, in the other hand, Uzowulu should recover from his madness and come in the proper way to beg his wife to return she will do so on the understanding that if he ever beats her again we shall cut off his genitals for him.
As she stood gazing at the circular darkness which had swallowed them, tears gushed from her eyes, and she swore within her that if she heard Ezinma cry she would rush into the cave to defend her against all the gods in the world. She would die with her.
“If you had been poor in your last life I would have asked you to be rich when you come again. But you were rich. If you had been a coward, I would have asked you to bring courage. But you were a fearless warrior. If you had died young, I would have asked you to get life. But you lived long. So I shall ask you to come again the way you came before. If your death was the death of nature, go in peace. But if a man caused it, do not allow him a moment’s rest.
As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others.
Have you not heard the song they sing when a woman dies? “‘For whom is it well, for whom is it well? There is no one for whom it is well.’
Never kill a man who says nothing.
The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.
Never make an early morning appointment with a man who has just married a new wife.
The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul—the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth.
To abandon the gods of one’s father and go about with a lot of effeminate men clucking like old hens was the very depth of abomination.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples imagine a vain thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.
If we put ourselves between the god and his victim we may receive blows intended for the offender. When a man blasphemes, what do we do? Do we go and stop his mouth? No. We put our fingers into our ears to stop us hearing. That is a wise action.
“If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Do I shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head. That is what a man does.
We are better than animals because we have kinsmen. An animal rubs its itching flank against a tree, a man asks his kinsman to scratch him.
A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.
We approach a great man through his servants. But when his servants fail to help us, then we go to the last source of hope. We appear to pay greater attention to the little gods but that is not so. We worry them more because we are afraid to worry their Master.
‘Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life.”
