When we hear a house has fallen do we ask if the ceiling fell with it?
Interpretation
This quote reflects on our tendency to overlook the broader implications of a situation and the interconnectedness of events.
Chinua Achebe's quote suggests that when we learn about a significant event, such as a house falling, we often focus on the primary outcome rather than considering the full scope of consequences that may accompany it, like the state of the ceiling. This invites deeper reflection on how we assess situations and underscores the importance of looking beyond the surface to understand the complete picture and its ramifications.
In practice
In a discussion about infrastructure safety, this quote could highlight the importance of considering all elements of a structure.
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.
A man does not always choose what his guardian angel intends.
I'm in awe of the universe, but I don't necessarily believe there's an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.
Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.
When you're thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that's faith; when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two that's science.
In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead.
Among the many problems with taking the Bible literally is it reduces the most mysterious and complex of realities to simple - even simplistic - terms. Yes, scripture speaks of fire and damnation and eternal bliss, but the Bible is the product of human hands and hearts, and much of the imagery is allegorical, not meteorological.
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