Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Very conscious of the fact that an effort was being made to destroy my mind, because I was deprived of books, deprived of any means of writing, deprived of human companionship. You never know how much you need it until you're deprived of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the profound impact of access to knowledge and human connections on mental well-being.
Wole Soyinka reflects on the emotional and psychological deprivation he faced when he was cut off from books, writing, and companionship. This experience made him aware of the critical role that literature, creative expression, and social interactions play in nurturing the mind and spirit. The quote reminds us of the importance of these elements for our mental health and highlights how easily we can take them for granted until they are no longer accessible.
Themes
BooksWritingCompanionshipMental HealthDeprivation
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on the importance of education, I could quote Soyinka to highlight the value of access to knowledge.
More from Wole Soyinka
All quotes →Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent.
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A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice.
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Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal.
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I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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