Chinua Achebe Quotes

We ran as if to meet the moon.

The moon is always jealous of the heat of the day, just as the sun always longs for something dark and deep.

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

I want to live.

Sun is the reason And the world it will bloom 'Cause sun lights the sky And the sun lights the moon

How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the moon, and flowers

During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.

Their desire was silent yet magnificent, like a thousand daisies attuning their faces toward the path of the sun.

Spring is come home with her world-wandering feet, And all things are made young with your desires.

I've found that there is always some beauty left -- in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.

If I were the moon, I know where I would fall down.

Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end - tonight's moon

May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.

The flower-girl's prayer to buy roses and pinks, held out in the smoke, like stars by day.

The late evening is the time of times. Then with that unearthly beauty before one it is not hard to realise how far one has to go. To write something that will be worthy of that rising moon, that pale light.

Yesterday from my office window I saw a crippled girl negotiating her way across the street, her shoulders squarely braced. At each jerky movement her hair flew back like an annunciatory angel, and I saw she was the only dancer on the street.

They danced by the light of the moon.

Where love is, what can be wanting? Where it is not, what can possibly be profitable?

Let the moon shine on the in thy solitary walk; and let the misty mountain-winds be free to blow against thee.

Take hold of your own life. See that the whole existence is celebrating. These trees are not serious, these birds are not serious. The rivers and the oceans are wild, and everywhere there is fun, everywhere there is joy and delight. Watch existence, listen to the existence and become part of it.

So imagine that the lovely moon is playing just for you - everything makes music if you really want it to.

Because if a woman's heart was free a man might have hope.

The first flower that blossomed on this earth was an invitation to an unborn song.