Top 982 Quotes & Sayings by Nigerian Authors - Page 4

Due to financial reasons, I dropped out of school after eight years of formal schooling.

If the church says you are not allowed to steal, and we will ostracize you in our midst if you did, if what a man has does not measure up to what he has, if we found that a man has more money than he should have, if a man is earning a salary of a civil servant or a public servant and he has houses everywhere, we have to hold him to account.

Discovery is for forward lookers. So, no one is born with great knowledge.

I was born in 1966, at the beginning of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War, and the war ended after three years. And I was growing up in school, and the federal government didn't want us taught about the history of the war, because they thought it probably would make us generate a new generation of rebels.

Whether it's someone struggling with mental illness, someone struggling with poverty or struggling with their own limitations in their social behaviors, for some reason, I'm drawn to characters like that.

I didn't get my licence because I wasn't allowed to. But I haven't had a seizure for a long time so I could, theoretically, get my licence. But I'm now just so used to not driving, I'm scared of what I'd do.

I have to have three or four books going simultaneously. If I'm not impressed in the first 20 pages, I don't bother reading the rest, especially with novels. I'm not a book-club style reader. I'm not looking for life lessons or wanting people to think I'm smart because I'm reading a certain book.

I don't know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.

As long as I can help the team achieve its objective, then I am happy playing anywhere upfront.

I am a black man inside and outside and you are white men on the outside, but inside, you are Africans like me.

Anywhere I can fit in, I will play.

My ambition is to contribute my quota to the overall success of the team.

Aang hits the Avatar-state and he has this unlimited power. He enters into a flow state, you know, he's in the zone. That's how it feels for me sometimes when I'm fighting.

Nothing makes us love a person as much as praying for him.

I kept wanting to push my image as validity; I wanted to see my portrait on a wall and know it was okay.

Lots of people knew who Kevin Hart was a decade before he hit it big.

I always make sure I hire people smarter than me.

Aang is an Airbender, and he became the Avatar after the last one died. He has to realize his destiny as the Avatar by mastering all of the elements - earth, fire and air. For me, I feel like I'm mastering all the different styles or elements of MMA. It's my destiny to become the Avatar of this game.

Some guys just like being a fighter, and they live in that world, but I got into this to be champion.

I want to do more good work. That's very much my parents' influence in me.

Mesut is a great player and he also works hard off the ball.

It is easy to romanticize poverty, to see poor people as inherently lacking agency and will. It is easy to strip them of human dignity, to reduce them to objects of pity. This has never been clearer than in the view of Africa from the American media, in which we are shown poverty and conflicts without any context.

Our lives sometimes depend on computers performing as predicted.

Our lives are in God's hands. We have no control. We can't control Him by using the Bible or cross as a good luck charm without a thorough reformation of heart and life.

You see, when I was young, I loved playing football. But where I grew up in southern Nigeria, it was kind of like a ghetto. It was a tough place to be a kid. You had to work very hard to make a living there, and my family did not have the extra funds to buy a real ball.

When people compare me to him... it's like 'wow' maybe they see me on his level but I don't believe I am there yet. It is what it is, he's a skilful player, I'm quite skilful myself so they are always going to compare me to him especially that he's my uncle.

I am a firm believe in the power of dreams, because the world is basically one giant realization of people's collective dreams come true. We need to dream to aspire to do something that keeps us striving. But those dreams and ideas and wants mean nothing without execution, which doesn't usually happen without a plan.

When it comes to power, God Himself is the power. God often uses foolish things to confound the wise. That is why people like me will ever be grateful to God. In terms of knowledge, education and name, I am nowhere - a neglected stone.

I am not one to chicken out.

Being a 'good man' is something you do, not something you are.

The gas, which is our main source of power, is priced in dollars.

There's a story in 'Kabu Kabu' called 'Bakasi Man' where I got to explore the mind of a 'bad man.' It was fun.

For as long as our people are held hostage by controllable socio-economic forces, we cannot afford to be indifferent to the ravages of poverty in all its dimensions and ramifications.

It was hard when my mother left us. I said to myself: 'You must keep working hard for her.' She was a teacher, a big influence. She made me work harder. So when I'm not doing something right or when I'm not playing or working hard enough, I remember what she used to say to me. She gets me moving. She pushed me to work hard.

Usually, by the time I hit 'save' before taking a nap, my word count has gone down, but the world I'm creating feels more tangible than it did before.

When I started going to school, I started getting used to things, like the language. After that, I started adapting to school, friends, and everything. It was really difficult, to start with, but I survived.

I don't think I'll ever escape the fact that I don't belong anywhere in particular. I've often dreamed about going back to Nigeria, but that's a very romantic notion. It's a hideous country to go to in reality.

You don't realise how cool your culture is until you get out of that phase of trying to fit in.

When it comes to doing my job, I keep my ego in my handbag.

In America we talk about South Africa, but I tell people that apartheid is nothing compared to what is happening in my country where black oppresses black.

You can come up with whatever tactics you want as a coach but if you don't have the tools to execute you will struggle, and if you don't have willing players that are ready to commit to the cause than you will struggle.

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

I didn't have the luxury of going to the four year school for acting.

It's amazing when you go back home now, when you remember how you were before. You go back home and all those people are calling your name, shouting. I get mobbed by the kids. They want to see you, want to know you.

I'm a good, upstanding guy with moral values and core values.

My brothers and sisters, we are all winners. In this context there is no victor and no vanquished. We have demonstrated, even in our diversity, the progress of Nigeria remains paramount for all.

People are more likely to pass me on the street without recognizing me, and that's good.

There always be rumours. That is also part of the game because it is a global game and a massive business.

I grew up in a predominantly white community - Hinsdale, Illinois - and given that, I feel blessed because I could still count my experiences with blatant racism on two hands. I thought racism was the substitute teacher picking on you because she assumes that you're a delinquent, and she doesn't know you have the highest score in the class.

It's a big step up for me, coming from the Championship to the Premier League, and, at the end of the day, it's up to the gaffer when I play and what role I take up.

The biggest thing people tell me is that I'll be jaded real soon and that the allure of filmmaking will lose its magic. Not necessarily the fame, but that special thing you create onscreen.

As long as I am progressing and trying to do my best for the team that is what really matters.

Racism hasn't been an everyday thing in my life, overt racism. There is obviously structural differences, but hate? I've not really had that.

To be a mother you must be strong. Even if you don't feel it, you have to pretend.

Many would say the reason why they steal is because they want to have an arsenal for future political exploits. It is a lie. It is greed. In any case, even if you want to do that, you have no right to do it.

To return to the books of my childhood is to yield to the strain of nostalgia that is curious about the self I once was.

I was in New York City on 9/11. Grief remains from that awful day, but not only grief. There is fear, too, a fear informed by the knowledge that whatever my worst nightmare is, there is someone out there embittered enough to carry it out.

My biggest opponent was 'me.'

I've got absolutely no real perception, properly, of time.

There's nothing wrong in men of God going into politics. It will help them to do what is right.