Quotes from the Book Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart  an important African novel by Chinua Achebe, is  one of the greatest classics of its time. The book involves the clash of cultures and belief systems, as colonization affects the people. Here are a few quotes from Things Fall Apart. Quotes From 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, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 3 But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbors that he was in error. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan. His enemies said that his good fortune had gone to his head.- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 4 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, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 7 When did you become a shivering old woman, Okonkwo asked himself, you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 8 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 mans razor had cut them.- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 9 Beware Okonkwo! she warned. Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware!- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 11 It was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become left-handed in old age.- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 14 We have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true.- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 15 Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 17 The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably 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, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 20 Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking: Why did he do it?- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 24