A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing
Interpretation
The quote suggests that there are reasons behind oneβs actions, even if they are not immediately apparent.
In this quote, Chinua Achebe conveys that every behavior or action has a purpose, especially when someone behaves unusually. The imagery of a toad, which is typically nocturnal, running during the day indicates that something must have compelled it to act in a way that is outside of its norm, suggesting that there are underlying motivations behind people's actions that may not be visible at first glance.
In practice
In a discussion about understanding people's choices in life.
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 without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.
There's no shortage of remarkable ideas, what's missing is the will to execute them.
How easy it is to see your brother's faults, How hard it is to face your own.
One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.
Believe that with your feelings and your work you are taking part in the greatest; the more strongly you cultivate this belief, the more will reality and the world go forth from it.
So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.
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