Okonkwo Quotes

The falcon cannot hear the falconer ~ William Butler Yeats

As they stood there together, Ekwefi's mind went back to the days when they were young. She had married Anene because OKonkwo was too poor then to marry. Two years after her marriage to Anene she could bear it no longer and she ran away to Okonkwo. It had been early in the morning. The moon was shining. She was going to the stream to fetch water. Okonkwo's house was on the way to the stream. She went in and knocked at his door and he came out. Even in those days he was not a man of many words. He just carried her into his bed and in the darkness began to feel around her waist for the loose end of her cloth. ~ Chinua Achebe

The world is large," said Okonkwo. "I have even heard that in some tribes a man's children belong to his wife and her family."
"That cannot be," said Machi. "You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the babies. ~ Chinua Achebe

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

You can be anywhere you want in the world, meet different people and learn more than a hundred things in a matter of minutes… all you have to do is READ! ~ C.M. Okonkwo

At the most one could say that his chi or ... personal god was good. But 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. ~ Chinua Achebe

Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.
It was deeper and more intimate that the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw.
Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. ~ Chinua Achebe

Knowledge is like an endless resource; a well of water that satisfies the innate thirst of the growing human soul. Therefore never stop learning ... because the day you do, you will also stop maturing. ~ Chidi Okonkwo

How can a man who has killed five men in a battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their family number?. Okonkwo,you have become a woman indeed.
Chapter 8,pg56 ~ Chinua Achebe

I do not know how to thank you.'
'I can tell you,' said Obierika. 'Kill one of your sons for me.'
'That will not be enough,' said Okonkwo.
'Then kill yourself,' said Obierika. ~ Chinua Achebe

Then listen to me,' he said and cleared his throat. 'It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme. Is it right that you, Okonkwo, should bring your mother a heavy face and refuse to be comforted? Be careful or you may displease the dead. Your duty is to comfort your wives and children and take them back to your fatherland after seven years. But if you allow sorrow to weigh you down and kill you, they will all die in exile. ~ Chinua Achebe

He so often felt as though he hailed from a different species, not quite human. He'd always been different, had never fit. Negroes looked at him askance, questioning his credentials as a Negro man. Whites did, too. For both groups, he wasn't Negro enough. ~ Joe Okonkwo

No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man. ~ Chinua Achebe

Forgiveness was like charity: You could dispense it, or not. And, as with charity, the one dispensing held the power. ~ Joe Okonkwo

I'm a time traveler... I travel through time to create and write stories. ~ C.M. Okonkwo

There is no story that is not true. ~ Chinua Achebe

I live more than a thousand lives... through the eyes of the characters I read in books. ~ C.M. Okonkwo

Harlem had been hit by a hurricane: It was raining cats and jazz. ~ Joe Okonkwo