"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."

"Everyone is linked, all our actions have ramifications, and music is a teacher of this interconnected reality."

"...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."

"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."

"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."

"Sadly, it is within the religious domain that the phenomenon of rhetorical hysteria takes its most devastating form...."

"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?"

"Today, the constituency of fear has become much broader, far less selective."

"For the fire consumes all but the arsonist."

"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."

"Envy, but not from prowess of his adze."

"The totem, my final insult. The final taunt from the human pigs."

"What are you? Men have killed for me. Men have died for me. Have you flints in your eye? Fool, have you never lived?""

"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."

"Now what am I thinking of? I must be getting tired. No sensible man burns the house to cook a little yam."

"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."

"We must remember that the only true giants are those who walk with the people, not over them."

"Ideas, like everything else, can be corrupted. Power is like that: it pollutes everything it touches."

"Power is transient, but the deeds of those who wield it can leave an indelible mark on history."

"We are the giants who bestride the world like a colossus, while others are mere mortals."

"The ground that man walks on, has it not always been there?"

"Man is a bird without wings and a tree without roots."

"Change was impossible to predict. A tempo, a mood would have settled over the house, over guests, relations, casual visitors, poor relations, 'cousins,' strays – all recognized within a tangible pattern of feeling – and then it would happen!"

"It is time to commence the mental shifts for admittance to yet another irrational world of adults and their discipline"

"Wild Christian shushed him, but I saw no difference in both their attitudes. I was overwhelmed by only one fact- there was neither justice nor logic in the world of grown-ups"

"Yes, you know damned well what you should have done if you sincerely desired their surrender. You could have dropped it [the atom bomb] on one of their mountains, even in the sea, anywhere they could see what would happen if they persisted in the war, but you chose instead to drop it on peopled cities. I know you, the white mentality: Japanese, Chinese, Africans, we are all subhuman. You would drop an atom bomb on Abeokuta or any of your colonies if it suited you"

"Things do not always happen as one plans. There are many disappointments in life. There is always the unexpected. You plan carefully, you decide on one step after another, and then...well, that is life. We are not God. So you see, one cannot afford to be weighed down by the unexpected. You will find that only determination will bring one through, sheer determination. And faith in God. Don't ever neglect your prayers...."

"Because he could not bear to let honour fly out of doors, he stopped it with his life. The son has proved the father Elesin, and there is nothing left in your mouth to gnash but infant gums."

"Then I slowly realised that your greatest art is the art of survival. But at least have the humility to let others survive in their own way."

"Is there now a streak of light at the end of the passage, a light I dare not look upon?"

"You know this business has to be stopped, Simon. And you are the only man who can do it."

"When they get this way there is nothing you can do. It's simply hammering against a brick wall."

"This market is my roost. When I come among the women I am a chicken with a hundred mothers."

"A tiger doesn't proclaim his tigritude, he pounces"

"I have always held the view that when you have that situation, you must refuse to be part of it"

"For me, justice is the first condition of humanity."

"Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away"

"Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress truth."

"What is one flesh from another? So I tried it again, just to be sure of myself. It was the first step to power, you understand. Power in its purest sense. The end of inhibitions. The conquest of weakness of your too human flesh with all its sentiment."

"Power comes from bending Nature to your will."

"It’s my life that’s gone into his. I haven’t burrowed so deep to cast good earth onto worthless seeds…."

"God rot your coward bones! Do you think not enough people die here that you must come and threaten me with death. You spurious spew. You instrument of mortgage. You unlicensed appendage of the steering wheel..."

"...There are dangers in the Quest I know, but the Word may be found companion not to life, but Death."

"Do you take me for a common gawper after misery?... My bed is among the dead, and when the road rises a victory cry to break my sleep I hurry to a disgruntled swam of souls full of spite for their rejected bodies"

"Nonsense, we run a bus. The seats face where you are going"

"You say you get pride and you are still a conductor on a bolekaja."

"It's a foolish elder who becomes a creditor, since he must wait until the other world, or outlive his debtors."

"If the young sapling bends, the old twig if it resists the wind, can only break."

"When a squirrel seeks sanctuary up the iroko tree the hunter's chase is ended."

"Age has shrunk the tortoise and the shell is full of air pockets."