There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts.
Interpretation
Fearless confrontation is necessary when faced with anger or intimidation.
This quote by Chinua Achebe emphasizes that outward expressions of aggression or fear might appear daunting, but they often lack the power to cause real harm. When someone reacts with shouting or intimidation, they may be expressing their inner fears or insecurities, which should not intimidate or deter us from standing our ground.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles, one might use this quote to encourage the audience not to be intimidated by challenges.
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.
As a black woman in the industry, you really do have to hold your head higher, stick your chest out, be kind and polite and generous even when you don't want to be sometimes. I learned that and, also, just to never take no for an answer.
A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
In swimming, especially training out in the ocean and open water, you got fogged-over goggles, you're stuck with your own thoughts - there's great benefits to that, deep thinking like that after many hours, but there's also tremendous loneliness. You burn out. You want to run, jump, ski, do anything. So at age 30, I was finished.
Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government.
Courage isn't the absence of fear, it's just deciding that fear isn't calling the shots anymore
It isn't for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for that long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.