"It changed names, leaders came and went, but the Movement remained, opening new visions, gathering greater and greater strength, till on the eve of Uhuru, its influence stretched from one horizon touching the sea to the other resting on the great Lake.”"

"He felt low. He had been like that for two days now. He could not understand it."

"How was it that Mumbi's story had cracked open his dulled inside and released imprisoned thoughts and feelings?"

"Something gave way in my heart, something in me cracked when I saw our home fall."

"Life had no colour. It was one endless blank sheet, so flat. There were no valleys, streams, no trees–nothing."

"I die for you, you die for me, we become a sacrifice for one another. So I can say that you, Karanja, are Christ. I am Christ. Everybody who takes the Oath of Unity to change things in Kenya is Christ."

"They talked of suffering under the whiteman and illustrated this with episodes which revealed their deep love of Kenya. In between each speaker, people would sing: Kenya is the country of black people. These speeches were summed up by one detainee who said: 'What thing is greater than love for one's country? The love that I have for Kenya kept me alive and made me endure everything.'"

"A man came into the office yesterday. He told me about a wanted terrorist leader. From the beginning, I was convinced the man was lying, was really acting, perhaps to trap me or hide his own part in the movement. He seemed to be laughing at me. Remember the African is a born actor, that's why he finds it so easy to lie. Suddenly I spat in his face. I don't know why, but I did it."

"As long as he did not know the truth, he could interpret the story in the only way that gave him hope: the coming of black rule would not mean, could never mean the end of white power."

"I never seek to defeat the man I'm fighting, I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals -true equals- only when they both have equal confidence."

"We don't become geisha because we want our lives to be happy; we become geisha because we have no choice."

"Water never waits. It changes shape and flows around things, and finds the secret paths no one else has thought about."

"Some people have difficulty telling the difference between something great and something they’ve simply heard of."

"Now I understood the thing I´d overlooked;the point wasn´t to become a geisha but to be one. To become a geisha . . . well, that was hardly a purpose in life. But to be a geisha . . . I could see it now as a stepping-stone to something else."

"A winter scene, though it may be covered over one day, with even trees dressed in shawls of snow, will be unrecognizable the following spring."

"I don't think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it."

"If you'd asked me why I wanted these things, I would have answered, why does a ripe persimmon taste delicious? Why does wood smell smoky when it burns?"

"A tree may look as beautiful as ever, but when you notice insects infesting it, and the tips of the branches that are brown from disease even the trunk seems to lose some of its magnificence."

"(Of Hatsumomo) She was like a fabric taken from its warm closet and hung out of doors where the harsh weather will gradually consume it."

"He was like a song I'd heard once in fragments but had been singing in my mind ever since."

"Everything around me seemed to grow so quiet, as if he were the wind that blew and I were just a cloud carries upon it."

"I felt as the waves of the ocean must feel when clouds have blocked the warmth of the sun."

"I felt as a simple smelt must feel when a silver salmon glides by."

"If you have experienced an evening more exciting than any in life, you're sad to see it end, and yet you still feel grateful that it happened."

"Occasionally in life we come upon things we can't understand because we have never seen anything similar."

"Dreams can be such dangerous things; they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes consume us completely."

"Being sent out into the world isn't necessarily the same as leaving your home behind you."

"We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course."

"I felt as a bird must feel when it has flown across the ocean and comes upon a creature that knows its nest."

"We rode to war. What matter if only a small war. Is the blade less sharp? The arrow less deadly? My blade this night would avenge not only my mother but my Arab teacher and all the others Tournemine had slain."

"If the dead live only in the memories of those they leave behind, then she would never die while I lived."

"A knife is sharpened on stone, steel is tempered by fire, but men must be sharpened by men."

"When one has lost his freedom it is always a long walk back."

"The weak can be terrible when they wish to appear strong, and he was such a man, darkly vengeful and unforgetting. If dying, he would strike out wickedly in all directions to injure all he could to his last breath.""

"So it ever is in moments of trial or decision. One is born alone, one dies alone, and usually faces the trials and tribulations alone."

"Escape you? You misunderstand the situation, Mahmound. It is you who shall not escape me."

"The dried leaves of autumn are lightly blown away, still more easily is the fortune of man destroyed."

"Honor is the thing, for he who is honorable needs no praise. He is secure with the knowledge of what he is, a decent human being first, all else after."

"To survive? What is that? A mouse lives, a fly lives, one flees in terror, another lives in filth. They exist, they are, but do they live?"

"Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for the trickster and catch him at the first attempt, but beware of an honest man."

"You are young, and honor rides with you, but honor is important only when dealing with honorable men."

"What can the will do when the heart commands?"

"Such are the amenities of social life, which oft makes a liar of the best of men. Never had I heard of Mas'ud Khan, nor had I any idea whether he was noble, splendid, or rich, but considering my problems, I hope he was all three."

"Deliver this man safely to Trebizond, or cut your own throat and sink your vessel. If he arrives not safely, we shall hunt you down and feed you, in small pieces, to the dogs. Do you understand?"

"If one plans to measure blows with a stranger, one had best judge the length of his arm."

"By the Gods! If it is a duel of wits you wish, you shall have it! I am sorry, Bardas. I could never fight an unarmed man."

"Ah, Beggar, you have come far since I tossed you a coin at the bazaar! Thank you, Bardas, it is true I have come far, yet I find you where you were, licking crumbs from the fingers of your superiors."

"Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds."

"I have observed that the steps of a man sound heavier when he is alone in the hall."

"I shall simply ask. Many things are not done simply because they are not attempted."