...when we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.
Interpretation
This quote warns that when we become complacent and distracted, we may unknowingly cause serious harm or injustice.
Chinua Achebe highlights the dangers of becoming too comfortable in our lives, suggesting that inattentiveness and complacency can lead to significant mistakes, particularly in the realm of justice. By pointing out the risk of committing 'grave injustices' while we are distracted, Achebe calls for mindfulness and active engagement in our moral responsibilities, emphasizing the importance of being aware of our surroundings and the impact of our actions.
In practice
During a speech about social responsibility, one might quote Achebe to emphasize the importance of staying engaged in societal issues.
In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to feel that the story that I was told about this religion wasn't perhaps completely whole, that something was left out.
Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches!
Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord's holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life - to drive the crowd away from His church.
It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.
Writing has always been a serious business for me. I felt it was a moral obligation. A major concern of the time was the absence of the African voice. Being part of that dialogue meant not only sitting at the table but effectively telling the African story from an African perspective - in full earshot of the world.
An angry man is always a stupid man.
Listening to people espouse beliefs different from mine is informative, not threatening, because the only thing that can alter my worldview is a new and undeniable truth, and contrary to what Jack Nicholson says in 'A Few Good Men', "I CAN handle the truth.
Every time I say 'no' to a small temptation, I strengthen my will to say 'no' to a greater one.
I know that when I attached my sense of identity a little too closely to my work that I might be distracting myself from feelings of unworthiness. It wasn't the number of hours I worked or how bloodshot my eyes were that defined the difference. It was something internal.
With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart from me.
How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding ; How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile.
I think it's easy to stop smoking; it's just hard not to commit a felony after you stop.
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