Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Wole SoyinkaRead
I don't know any other way to live but to wake up every day armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes living with conviction despite external pressures or threats.
Wole Soyinka expresses a strong commitment to upholding one's beliefs and values in the face of adversity. He suggests that to truly live, one must confront each day prepared to defend their convictions against those who may oppose or reject them, reflecting a profound courage and resilience against societal pressures or fears of rejection.
Themes
ConvictionsCourageAdversityBeliefsResilience
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about standing up for one's beliefs.
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
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