Chinua Achebe Quotes

Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

In my beginning is my end.

I think that souls agree to come in and do what they're going to do and then leave when they're going to leave. So there's nothing tragic when a soul leaves. I think it was already preordained.

Life comes full circle.

Everything in life happens for a reason and it's important to embrace it.

I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it.

How interesting it would be to write the story of the experiences in this life of a man who killed himself in his previous life; how he stumbles against the very demands which had offered themselves before, until he arrives at the realization that he must fulfill those demands. The deeds of the preceding life give direction to the present life.

I am a road man for the lords of karma.

Here an attempt is made to explain suffering: the outcaste of traditional Hinduism is held to deserve his fetched fate; it is a punishment for the wrongs he did in a previous life.

I believe nothing happens by mistake. You know, the universe has a divine plan. That sounds dramatic.

Leave the rest to the gods.

Many instances exist of small children who seem to remember and describe their previous life in another body, another place, and with other people. These memories emerge usually shortly after these children begin to talk.

I believe in reincarnation. In my last life I was a peasant. Next time around, I'd like to be an eagle. Who hasn't dreamed they could fly? They're a protected species, too.

We choose our sex, our color, our country, and then we look around for the particular set of parents who will mirror the pattern we are bringing in to work on in this lifetime.

God has a plan for everybody's life, so there was obviously a reason why He wanted me to go to Notre Dame. Everything happens for a reason.

But Buddy was an upper. He was happy. He loved music, and he was really happy. I don't know... I don't believe in reincarnation at all, but if all that stuff is true, then he might have been on his last time around.

You know, if you hang around this earth long enough you really see how things come full circle.

The soul grows by reincarnation in bodies provided by nature, more complex, more powerful, as the soul unfolds greater and greater faculties. And so the soul climbs upward into the light eternal. And there is no fear for any child of man, for inevitably he climbs towards God.

You can't be scared of death. When that time comes, it comes.

From a Hindu perspective, you are born as what you need to deal with, and if you just try and push it away, whatever it is, it's got you.

I've always been so curious about death. With my personal beliefs as a Baha'i, we believe that birth and death are very similar and that we're here on this Earth to develop all of the things we can't see.

But blind to former as to future fate, what mortal knows his pre-existent state?

You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime.

In India, there's a way of seeing life as a cosmic play. It's called Lila. I can watch my life, and I can see my guru playing with me.

I feel birth, death, marriage is destined, and these things can't be manipulated. I have surrendered my life completely. So, whenever it happens, I will accept it.