Chinua Achebe Quotes

Hardships make us strong. Problems give birth to wisdom. Sorrows cultivate compassion. Those who have suffered the most will become the happiest.

I knew that poets seemed to be miserable.

creative people always suffer from depression because we're so super sensitive and special?

And if there is still one hellish, truly accursed thing in our time, it is our artistic dallying with forms, instead of being like victims burnt at the stake, signaling through the flames.

Suffering may be someones fault or it may not be anyones fault. But if given to God, our suffering becomes an opportunity to experience the power of God at work in our lives and to give glory to Him.

Above all else, He loves you and chose to measure that love out not in words, but in blood. He loves you enough to give you the greatest gift conceivable. Would such a love allow you to suffer without purpose?

If you participate in life, you don’t see it clearly: you suffer from it too much or enjoy it too much. The artist, to my way of thinking, is a monstrosity, something outside nature. All the misfortunes Providence inflicts on him come from his stubborness in denying that maxim.

We must suffer. Our five sense are dulled by inordinate pleasure. Penance makes them keen, gives them back their natural vitality, and more. Penance clears the eye of conscience and of reason. It helps think clearly, judge sanely. It strengthens the action of our will.

He that gives all before hee dies provides to suffer.

Heaven is the experience of being completely present to all that is, all that you are, and all that you have to give. Are you choosing to live in heaven or suffer in hell?

Don't ever write a novel unless it hurts like a hot turd coming out.

Oh what a poet I will flay myself into.

Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee, as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.

I know that God is not going to willfully hurt us. Why there is suffering is the business of the Lord, but He never seems to give us more than we can bear.

A day will come when everything in my life will be changed, when I shall do good to others, when some one will love me, when I shall give my whole heart to the man whi gives ne his; neanwhile, U will suffer in silence and keep my love as a reward for him who shall set me free.

The cross alone is our theology.

It's an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater lustre to our colours, a richer resonance to our words.

Show me a writer, any writer, who hasn't suffered and I'll show you someone who writes in pastels as opposed to primary colors.

Pain reconciles one to existence. Infinite resignation is that shirt in the old fable. The thread is spun with tears, bleached by tears, the shirt sewn in tears, but then it also gives better protection than iron. The secret in life is that everyone must sew it for himself.

The cross is the price of true love. Lord, give us the strength to accept and carry our crosses!

There are times when you get hit upon, Try hard but you cannot give. Other times you'd gladly part, With what you need to live

I was given the gifts of the artist, and the trouble that goes with them: So I have that blessing, and there was never a time thatI questioned it or doubted it.... For forty years, I wanted to jump out of windows.

You can't be creative when you're completely happy.

Most writers need a wound, either physical or spiritual.

The Gods sell when they give. Glory is paid for with disgrace. Poor are the happy, for they are Just what passes.