Things Fall Apart Quotes

Quote 1: "agbala" Chapter 2, Pg. 11

Quote 2: "ha[d] a manly and a proud heart. 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." Chapter 3, Pg. 21

Quote 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." Chapter 4, pg. 26

Quote 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." Chapter 7, Pg. 45

Quote 5: "'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.'" Chapter 8, Pg. 56

Quote 6: "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 man's razor had cut them." Chapter 9, Pg. 69

Quote 7: "'Beware Okonkwo!' she warned. 'Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware!'" Chapter 11, Pg. 89

Quote 8: "if one finger brought oil it soiled the others." Chapter 13, Pg. 111

Quote 9: "It was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become left-handed in old age." Chapter 14, Pg. 113

Quote 10: "'iron horse'" Chapter 15, Pg. 120

Quote 11: "'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.'" Chapter 15, Pg. 122

Quote 12: "Living fire begets cold, impotent ash." Chapter 17, Pg. 134

Quote 13: "'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.'" Chapter 20, pg. 152

Quote 14: "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?'" Chapter 24, Pg. 176