Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

221 quotes

“In secondary school, a boy and a girl, both of them teenagers, both of them with the same amount of pocket money, would go out and then the boy would be expected always to pay, to prove his masculinity. And yet we wonder why boys are more likely to steal money from their parents.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“Even if they believe something to be true or important, they do not say so because they should not say so”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“Gender and class are different forms of oppression.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“We do a much greater disservice to girls because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of men.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“If you are the breadwinner in your relationship with a man, you have to pretend that you're not, especially in public; otherwise you will emasculate him.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“We teach females that in relationships, compromise is what women do.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“I don't think there's an English word I dislike more than "emasculation.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“The language of marriage is often the language of ownership rather than the language of partnership.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“A man who would be intimidated by me is exactly the kind of man I would have no interest in.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“I know a woman who decided to sell her house because she didn't want to intimidate a man who might marry her.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“I know an unmarried woman in Nigeria who, when she goes to conferences, wears a wedding ring because, according to her, she wants the other participants in the conference to "give her respect.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“I know young women who are under so much pressure from family, from friends, even from work to get married, and they're pushed to make terrible choices.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“A woman at a certain age who is unmarried, our society teaches her to see it as a deep, personal failure. And a man at a certain age who is unmarried, we just think he hasn't come around to making his pick.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“I’m a writer and I think that freedom of speech is essential if we are going to have literature.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“I might not necessarily be worried about my physical safety but I think that other kinds of safety, emotional safety, mental safety, and those concern me, yes.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“I was a very curious child keen to hear every story, especially those that were no business of mine. And so, as a result, I sharpened very early on in life the skill of eavesdropping, a pastime at which I am still quite adept.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“We would not expect this whispering in a democracy.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“Freedom of expression is after all, the bedrock of open societies.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“we now live in broad, settled, ideological tribes” which leads many young people to practise self-censorship.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“there are 4 many people in Western democracies today who will not speak loudly about issues they care about because they are afraid of what I will call, “social censure,” vicious retaliation, not from the government, but from other citizens.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“Some social media companies “lack transparency”,”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022
“Free speech is indeed a tool of the powerful, but it is also crucially the language of the powerless. The courageous protests by Iranian women, the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria, where young people rallied against police brutality, the Arab Spring: all wielded speech. Dissent is impossible without the freedom of speech.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022
“No human endeavour requires freedom as much as creativity does.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022: The Four Freedoms
“(Which writers — novelists, playwrights, critics, journalists, poets — working today do you admire most?) Tash Aw, Niq Mhlongo, Rachel Seiffert, Mary Gaitskill, David Szalay, Leila Aboulela, Dave Eggers, Tracy K. Smith, Tessa Hadley, Richard Flanagan, Claire Messud, James Lasdun, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vivian Gornick, the late Bharati Mukherjee, Deborah Levy, John Gregory Brown, Amit Chaudhuri, Nawal El Saadawi, Margo Jefferson, Jesmyn Ward, Lynn Nottage, Janet Malcolm, Jamaica Kincaid, Alice Walker, Peter Orner, Susan Orlean.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What the Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Reads While She Works" The New York Times (23 April 2020)
“Why did people ask "What is it about?" as if a novel had to be about only one thing.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When it comes to dressing well, American culture is so self-fulfilled that it has not only disregarded this courtesy of self-presentation, but has turned that disregard into a virtue. "We are too superior/busy/cool/not-uptight to bother about how we look to other people, and so we can wear pajamas to school and underwear to the mall.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you’re telling a non-black person about something racist that happened to you, make sure you are not bitter. Don’t complain. Be forgiving. If possible, make it funny. Most of all, do not be angry. Black people are not supposed to be angry about racism. Otherwise you get no sympathy. This applies only for white liberals, by the way. Don’t even bother telling a white conservative about anything racist that happened to you. Because the conservative will tell you that YOU are the real racist and your mouth will hang open in confusion.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm chasing you. I'm going to chase you until you give this a chance.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They never said “I don’t know.” They said, instead, “I’m not sure,” which did not give any information but still suggested the possibility of knowledge.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She liked that [Obinze] wore their relationship so boldly, like a brightly colored shirt. Sometimes she worried that she was too happy. She would sink into moodiness, and snap at Obinze, or be distant. And her joy would become a restless thing, flapping its wings inside her, as though looking for an opening to fly away.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With him, she was at ease: her skin felt as though it was her right size. She told him how she very much wanted God to exist but feared He did not, how she worried that she should know what she wanted to do with her life but did not even know what she wanted to study at university. It seemed so natural, to talk to him about odd things. She had never done that before. The trust, so sudden and yet so complete, and the intimacy, frightened her.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Being defiant can be a good thing sometimes," Aunty Ifeoma said. "Defiance is like marijuana - it is not a bad thing when it is used right.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I cannot control even the dreams that I have made.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People have crushes on priests all the time, you know. It’s exciting to have to deal with God as a rival.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The white missionaries brought us their god,” Amaka was saying. “Which was the same color as them, worshiped in their language and packaged in the boxes they made. Now that we take their god back to them, shouldn’t we at least repackage it?”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Eugene has to stop doing God's job. God is big enough to do his own job. If God will judge our father for choosing to follow the way of our ancestors, then let God do the judging, not Eugene.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was a helplessness to his joy, the same kind of helplessness as in that woman’s despair.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Things started to fall apart when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the étagère.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I meant to say I am sorry that Papa broke your figurines, but the words that came out were, ‘I’m sorry your figurines broke, Mama.’”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Imagine what the Standard would be if we were all quiet.’”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was a joke. Ade Coker was laughing; so was his wife, Yewande. But Papa did not laugh. Jaja and I turned and went back upstairs, silently.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I looked at Jaja and wondered if the dimness in his eyes was shame. I suddenly wished, for him, that he had done the ima mmuo, the initiation into the spirit world. I knew very little about it; women were not supposed to know anything at all, since it was the first step toward the initiation to manhood. But Jaja once told me that he heard that boys were flogged and made to bathe in the presence of a taunting crowd. The only time Papa had talked about the ima mmuo was to say that the Christians who let their sons do it were confused, that they would end up in hellfire.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought the Igwe was supposed to stay at his place and receive guests. I didn’t know he visits people’s homes,’ Amaka said, as we went downstairs. ‘I guess that’s because your father is a Big Man.’”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When she made a U-turn and went back the way we had come, I let my mind drift, imagining God laying out the hills of Nsukka with his wide white hands, crescent-moon shadows underneath his nails just like Father Benedict’s.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Morality, as well as the sense of taste, is relative.’”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This cannot go on, nwunye m,’ Aunty Ifeoma said. ‘When a house is on fire, you run out before the roof collapses on your head.’”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rain splashed across the floor of the veranda, even though the sun blazed and I had to narrow my eyes to look out the door of Aunty Ifeoma’s living room. Mama used to tell Jaja and me that God was undecided about what to send, rain or sun. We would sit in our rooms and look out at the raindrops glinting with sunlight, waiting for God to decide.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She picked up an enterprising snail that was crawling out of the open basket. She threw it back in and muttered, ‘God take power from the devil.’ I wondered if it was the same snail, crawling out, being thrown back in, and then crawling out again. Determined. I wanted to buy the whole basket and set that one snail free.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source