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Wole Soyinka
133 quotes
“Power is transient, but the deeds of those who wield it can leave an indelible mark on history.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ideas, like everything else, can be corrupted. Power is like that: it pollutes everything it touches.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must remember that the only true giants are those who walk with the people, not over them.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trouble me no further. The fooleries of beings whom I have fashioned closer to me weary and distress me. Yet I must persist, knowing that nothing is ever altered. My secret is my eternal burden—to pierce the encrustations of soul-deadening habit, and bare the mirror of original nakedness—knowing full well, it is all futility.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now what am I thinking of? I must be getting tired. No sensible man burns the house to cook a little yam.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When your business men ruin the lesser ones, do you go crying to them? I also have no pity for the one who invested foolishly. Investors, that is all they ever were—to me.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What are you? Men have killed for me. Men have died for me. Have you flints in your eye? Fool, have you never lived?”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The totem, my final insult. The final taunt from the human pigs.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Envy, but not from prowess of his adze.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My secret is my eternal burden—to pierce the encrustations of soul-deadening habit, and bare the mirror of original nakedness—knowing full well, it is all futility.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the fire consumes all but the arsonist.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today, the constituency of fear has become much broader, far less selective.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you believe in democracy, are you not thereby obliged to accept, without discrimination, the fall-outs that come with a democratic choice, even if this means the termination of the democratic process itself?”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sadly, it is within the religious domain that the phenomenon of rhetorical hysteria takes its most devastating form....”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is nothing in the least delicate about the slaughter of innocents. We all subscribe to the lofty notions contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but, for some reason, become suddenly coy and selective when it comes to defending what is obviously the most elementary of these rights, which is the right to life.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fault, of course, is not in religion, but in the fanatic of every religion. Fanaticism remains the greatest carrier of the spores of fear, and the rhetoric of religion, with the hysteria it so readily generates, is fast becoming the readiest killing device of contemporary times.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...the Christian world is not one, neither is the Islamic, nor does their combined authority speak to or for the entire world, but the world of the fanatic IS one and it cuts across all religions, ideologies and vocations.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone is linked, all our actions have ramifications, and music is a teacher of this interconnected reality.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In one form or the other, the quest for human dignity has proved to be one of the most propulsive elements for wars, civil strife and willing sacrifice. Yet the entitlement to dignity, enshrined among the 'human rights', does not aspire to being the most self-evident, essential need for human survival, such as food, or physical health.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The very least we can live with is an agreement that does not reduce us to slaves of imposition, but makes us partners of consent.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is peace in being a stranger.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But then I am a woman. I have a woman’s longings and weaknesses.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A village which cannot produce its own carrier contains no men.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Surely it is too much to ask a man to give up his own soil.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ours is a strong breed my son. It is only a strong breed that can take this boat to the river year after year and wax stronger on it. I have taken down each year’s evils for over twenty years. I hoped you would follow me.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No. Let me put it this way, turning anything in my life into something other people can watch, pains me. I assisted them in trying to locate a house in which I hid and operated during the civil war. They were looking for something close to one we were using during that period.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I not only chose it, I campaigned for it. I lobbied for it. I cheated for it. I beat people up for it to make sure I had that particular house, anything it took.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wilderness? No, I don’t consider forests wilderness. It’s my home. It’s a difficult question you asked. How does one develop preferences, not just preferences, but move into options as if it’s the most natural, obvious thing in the world? All I can say is that, well, I grew up in a parsonage, which is very wooded, with rocks, trees, and all kinds of vegetation.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, that’s one of the easiest questions to answer. The most dramatic and significant achievement of Ebrohimie Road was that it was from there that I went into detention, and it was back there to which I returned.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How did the yearning to collect artworks begin? That I can specify. Some artworks were stolen, sometimes by expatriate staff within the university itself. And I became conscious of a heritage disappearing. It was a free-for-all, literally, and wasn’t just in the University of Ìbàdàn alone.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then there is also an important relationship for me between nature and artworks, perhaps because I grew up with a sensitization to the fact that nature offers the primary impulse for creativity.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“England is a cesspit. England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist Muslims. Its social logic is to allow all religions to preach openly. But this is illogic, because none of the other religions preach apocalyptic violence. And yet England allows it. Remember, that country was the breeding ground for communism, too. Karl Marx did all his work in libraries there....We should assemble all those who are pure and cannot abide other faiths, put them all in rockets, and fire them into space.....A virus has attacked the world of sense and sensibility, and it has spread to Nigeria....The assumption of power over life and death then passed to every single inconsequential Muslim in the world-as if someone had given them a new stature...Al Qaeda is the descendent of this phenomenon. The proselytization of Islam became vigorous after this. People went to Saudi Arabia. Madrassas were established everywhere.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wole Soyinka: Duncan Gardham - Mutallab: Again Soyinka Blames UK For Breeding Terrorists - TheWill, February 2, 2010James Meikle - England is 'cesspit' breeding Islamists, says Soyinka - The Guardian, February 2, 2010
“People say human nature is a very vague expression, people tend to say human nature is corruptible anyway and it comes from a theological point of view, goes back to the Garden of Eden, that there is always this corrupt gene waiting to be activated that we inherited from the very beginning. I don't believe in that theological excuse but I know that the sudden oil wealth, easy access to wealth fuelled the process, it definitely accentuated the process, it made corruption easy because if you are corrupt and you have extra cash you are able to shut the mouth of your accuser and they will be silenced.”
Wole Soyinka (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source