Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Wole SoyinkaRead
My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Engaging with art expands our understanding of humanity and enriches our lives.
Wole Soyinka expresses that immersing oneself in various art forms, such as poetry, painting, and music, broadens one's perspective on humanity. He highlights that these artistic experiences, which may not directly address human struggles, still contribute significantly to personal enrichment and understanding of the human condition.
Themes
ArtHumanityEnrichmentPoetryMusicPainting
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of art on society, this quote can be used to illustrate how art shapes our understanding of others.
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.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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
Similar quotes
The Creator wants us to drum. He wants us to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants. After all, we have already corrupted the world with power and greed....which hasn't gotten us anywhere - now's the time to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants.
Babatunde OlatunjiRead
My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.
Ernest HemingwayRead
They want me to write differently. Certainly I could, but I must not. God has chosen me from thousands and given me, of all people, this talent. It is to Him that I must give account. How then would I stand there before Almighty God, if I followed the others and not Him?
Anton BrucknerRead
I’m just a storyteller, and the cinema happens to be my medium. I like it because it recreates life in movement, enlarges it, enhances it, distills it. For me, it’s far closer to the miraculous creation of life than, say, a painting or music or even literature. It’s not just an art form; it’s actually a new form of life, with its own rhythms, cadences, perspectives and transparencies. It’s my way of telling a story.
Federico FelliniRead
As if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
The sinews of art and literature, like those of war, are money.
Samuel ButlerRead