151 Quotes by Nigerian authors

Nigerian words carry the drumbeat of streets and compounds alike: wise as elders’ counsel, sly as market banter, and quick with a Pidgin wink. These voices braid resilience, communal duty, and playful audacity; they bless and scold, bargain and praise, remembering ancestors while hustling tomorrow. Expect proverbs that move like masquerades, satire sharp enough to peel yam, prayers salted with humor, and love that refuses to be quiet. From harmattan dust to neon danfo rides, the language stays alive, earthy, inventive, and unafraid of truth.

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"The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement; it is this"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present"

Babatunde Olatunji, Musician

"When you get to that level, it's not a matter of talent anymore - because all the players are so talented - it's about preparation, about playing smart and making good decisions"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"Religion is one dimension of culture, a transcendent element of it"

Francis Arinze, Clergyman

"Art is man's constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"It is better we disintegrate in peace and not in pieces"

Nnamdi Azikiwe, Statesman

"I remember at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Shaq always wanted me to show him steps over and over"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"Debate and divergence of views can only enrich our history and culture"

Ibrahim Babangida, Statesman

"Nigeria has no business with poverty. With our human and material resources, we shall strive to eradicate poverty from our country"

Olusegun Obasanjo, Statesman

"When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"Being from Africa is the best thing that could have ever, ever happened to me. I cannot see it any other way. All of my fundamental principles that were instilled in me in my home, from my childhood, are still with me"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism"

Wole Soyinka, Dramatist

"The acknowledged legislators of the world take the world as given. They dislike mysteries, for mysteries cannot be coded, or legislated, and wonder cannot be made into law. And so these legislators police the accepted frontiers of things"

Ben Okri, Poet

"Reading, like writing, is a creative act. If readers only bring a narrow range of themselves to the book, then they'll only see their narrow range reflected in it"

Ben Okri, Poet

"The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail"

Wole Soyinka, Dramatist

"Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie"

Wole Soyinka, Dramatist

"I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture"

Wole Soyinka, Dramatist

"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering"

Ben Okri, Poet

"The higher the artist, the fewer the gestures. The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination. The greater the will, the greater the secret failure"

Ben Okri, Poet

"The work of Nigeria is not complete for as long as there is any one Nigerian who goes to bed on empty stomach"

Ibrahim Babangida, Statesman

"Our lives sometimes depend on computers performing as predicted"

Philip Emeagwali, Scientist

"Stories serve the purpose of consolidating whatever gains people or their leaders have made or imagine they have made in their existing journey thorough the world"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"They have not always elected the best leaders, particularly after a long period in which they have not used this facility of free election. You tend to lose the habit"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"Nigera is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be"

Chinua Achebe, Writer

"I've now been in this country for thirteen years, since I was seventeen. So this is my second home"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"I don't think Michael had to retire for us to get the spotlight, because when you win, it commands attention"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"I always keep a ball in the car. You never know"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"All these boundaries - Africa, Asia, Malaysia, America - are set by men. But you don't have to look at boundaries when you are looking at a man - at the character of a man. The question is: What do you stand for? Are you a follower, or are you a leader?"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"When I look at the system here and look at my position - not just as a basketball player, but when I look around me at the values of the people and the culture and compare them with the values of where I came from - I feel so blessed to be from Africa"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"My background playing soccer gave me a natural advantage over many of the American-born players"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"Basketball is in my blood. It is my obligation to try"

Hakeem Olajuwon, Athlete

"Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will hardly ever be resolved. I can define in fact, can simplify the history of human society, the evolution of human society, as a contest between power and freedom"

Wole Soyinka, Dramatist

"The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist"

Wole Soyinka, Dramatist

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