My father was a schoolteacher, and so I had the advantage of both western educational instruction in the school, as well as what you might call the process of imbibing the traditional processes of education instruction around me.
Wole Soyinka
Related I don't know if I have a favorite color. KATE MIDDLETON It's very special having a new little girl. KATE MIDDLETON I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES It's all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you're properly trained. QUEEN ELIZABETH II Like all best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and... QUEEN ELIZABETH II My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II It is easy enough to define what the Commonwealth is not. Indeed this is quite a popular pastime. QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have to be seen to be believed. QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughou... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I hope that tomorrow we can all, wherever we are, join in expressing our grief at Diana's loss, ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast. QUEEN ELIZABETH II The British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be. QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have behind me not only the splendid traditions and the annals of more than a thousand years but t... QUEEN ELIZABETH II To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in th... QUEEN ELIZABETH II What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass; it is almost exactly 13 years since ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something e... QUEEN ELIZABETH II To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts an... QUEEN ELIZABETH II Grief is the price we pay for love. QUEEN ELIZABETH II The upward course of a nation's history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II At its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions. It is a nobl... QUEEN ELIZABETH II At Christmas, I am always struck by how the spirit of togetherness lies also at the heart of the Chr... QUEEN ELIZABETH II For many, Christmas is also a time for coming together. But for others, service will come first. QUEEN ELIZABETH II The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses w... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your s... QUEEN ELIZABETH II Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendor that are g... QUEEN ELIZABETH II We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the man... QUEEN ELIZABETH II Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as... QUEEN ELIZABETH II These wretched babies don't come until they are ready. QUEEN ELIZABETH II I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II The events that I have attended to mark my Diamond Jubilee have been a humbling experience. It has t... QUEEN ELIZABETH II In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace ... QUEEN ELIZABETH II Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters... QUEEN ELIZABETH II No one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew... QUEEN ELIZABETH II I have been aware all the time that my peoples, spread far and wide throughout every continent and o... QUEEN ELIZABETH II We'll sort of get over the marriage first and then maybe look at the kids. But obviously we want... PRINCE WILLIAM Family is the most important thing in the world. PRINCESS DIANA You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I ... CATHERINE THE GREAT With the right help, children have a good chance of overcoming their issues while they are still you... KATE MIDDLETON As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. KING SOLOMON I don't mind a big fascinator. I think there is more scope for artwork in a fascinator rather th... ZARA PHILLIPS I was always told from the hat-makers that you should have your hair up because it shows the hat mor... ZARA PHILLIPS I don't think I'll still be riding at 40. There are a couple of people who are still riding ... ZARA PHILLIPS My dad's not a big talker. ZARA PHILLIPS My dad can be pretty critical sometimes. ZARA PHILLIPS I'd love to have kids, but not at the moment. ZARA PHILLIPS You cannot make horses 'safe.' ZARA PHILLIPS Virtually everything that gets printed about me is wrong anyway, so it doesn't really matter wha... ZARA PHILLIPS It's stupid to say that I don't like being in the public eye, but I don't like doing stu... ZARA PHILLIPS I'm an affectionate person. ZARA PHILLIPS People still text me to say that there is something about me in the paper, and what really annoys me... ZARA PHILLIPS Sometimes people will come up in the street and say: 'My daughter loves you, will you sign an au... ZARA PHILLIPS Taking part in an Olympics on home ground is something you dream about. ZARA PHILLIPS My brother and I have been able to get on and have been very lucky to do things with our family that... ZARA PHILLIPS I don't think about the media. ZARA PHILLIPS I love the sport and being competitive. ZARA PHILLIPS The horses are all characters, all personalities. Some you get along with, some you don't, some ... ZARA PHILLIPS I hate having my picture taken. ZARA PHILLIPS Unfortunately in sport it's either good or bad. You've got to take the highs and the lows. ZARA PHILLIPS My mother is massively into sailing, so we always had Musto clothes, and it went on from there, real... ZARA PHILLIPS The senior members of the royal family work very hard and I don't think people quite realise tha... ZARA PHILLIPS In our sport you're very lucky to find a horse of a lifetime and I found mine relatively early. ... ZARA PHILLIPS I don't have a stylist, and I do most of my shopping online, just because it's easier. I don... ZARA PHILLIPS I think Facebook's dangerous. So many people I know get into trouble with Facebook... I'd ra... ZARA PHILLIPS I'm not a princess anyway so I find that quite weird to be labelled as one. ZARA PHILLIPS Smoking is hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs. KING JAMES I My dear mamma is quite right when she says that we must lay down principles and not depart from them... MARIE ANTOINETTE I never make a trip to the United States without visiting a supermarket. To me they are more fascina... WALLIS SIMPSON PS: It's all gossip about the prince. I'm not in the habit of taking my girlfriends' bea... WALLIS SIMPSON I am so anxious for you not to abdicate and I think the fact that you do is going to put me in the w... WALLIS SIMPSON I hate this place. I shall hate it to my grave. WALLIS SIMPSON I look a hundred and weigh 110 - you won't love me when you see the wreck England has made me. WALLIS SIMPSON A woman's life can really be a succession of lives, each revolving around some emotionally compe... WALLIS SIMPSON Never explain, never complain. WALLIS SIMPSON You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance. WALLIS SIMPSON I have always had the courage for the new things that life sometimes offers. WALLIS SIMPSON For a gallant spirit there can never be defeat. WALLIS SIMPSON Forgive me for not writing but this man is exhausting. WALLIS SIMPSON You can never be too rich or too thin. WALLIS SIMPSON A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. KING SOLOMON It seems to me that man is made to act rather than to know: the principles of things escape our most... FREDERICK THE GREAT Addiction is a hugely complex and destructive disease, and its impact can be simply devastating. All... KATE MIDDLETON There is nothing new except what has been forgotten. MARIE ANTOINETTE I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all. MARIE ANTOINETTE I think change needs to be egoless. It's not about my leaving my fingerprints or a legacy. It... QUEEN RANIA OF JORDAN We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not exist. QUEEN VICTORIA I can make a lord, but only God can make a gentleman. KING JAMES I I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse. CHARLES V I feel very, very lucky that George has got a little sister. KATE MIDDLETON It would be doing me great injustice to think that I have any feeling of indifference to my country;... MARIE ANTOINETTE I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. AUGUSTUS A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in. FREDERICK THE GREAT Nothing is more useless in developing a nation's economy than a gun, and nothing blocks the road... HUSSEIN OF JORDAN It is necessary to try to pass one's self always; this occupation ought to last as long as life. QUEEN CHRISTINA There's nothing like a jolly good disaster to get people to start doing something. PRINCE CHARLES We shouldn't judge people through the prism of our own stereotypes. QUEEN RANIA OF JORDAN I don't even know how to use a parking meter, let alone a phone box. PRINCESS DIANA What must it be like for a little boy to read that daddy never loved mummy? PRINCESS DIANA The kindness and affection from the public have carried me through some of the most difficult period... PRINCESS DIANA People think that at the end of the day a man is the only answer. Actually, a fulfilling job is bett... PRINCESS DIANA
More Wole Soyinka
The blatant aggressiveness of theocracies I find distressing, because I grew up when Christians, Mus... WOLE SOYINKA The scales of reckoning with mortality are never evenly weighted, alas, and thus it is on the should... WOLE SOYINKA History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accomp... WOLE SOYINKA I love beauty. But I like the beauty accidentally, not dished up, served up on a platter. WOLE SOYINKA I found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We'd meet, they'd come a... WOLE SOYINKA A tiger does not shout its tigritude, it acts. WOLE SOYINKA Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private sp... WOLE SOYINKA I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wishe... WOLE SOYINKA My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to ... WOLE SOYINKA The hand that dips into the bottom of the pot will eat the biggest snail. WOLE SOYINKA Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that a... WOLE SOYINKA Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling there's a lot of work to be done. WOLE SOYINKA The phenomenon of creativity, we know, is closely related to the ability to yoke together separate, ... WOLE SOYINKA Nigeria has had the misfortune - no, the fortune - of seeing the worst face of capitalism anywhere i... WOLE SOYINKA I don't know any other way to live but to wake up every day armed with my convictions, not yield... WOLE SOYINKA Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves re... WOLE SOYINKA One has a responsibility to clean up one's space and make it livable as far as one's own res... WOLE SOYINKA You cannot live a normal existence if you haven't taken care of a problem that affects your life... WOLE SOYINKA Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth. WOLE SOYINKA Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how... WOLE SOYINKA There is only one home to the life of a river-mussel; there is only one home to the life of a tortoi... WOLE SOYINKA Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie. WOLE SOYINKA Human life has meaning only to that degree and as long as it is lived in the service of humanity. WOLE SOYINKA The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny. WOLE SOYINKA I like my peace and quiet whenever I can grab it. WOLE SOYINKA The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. WOLE SOYINKA I am a glutton for tranquility. WOLE SOYINKA And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of oth... WOLE SOYINKA Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of... WOLE SOYINKA I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself. WOLE SOYINKA See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet com... WOLE SOYINKA Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the own... WOLE SOYINKA The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular,... WOLE SOYINKA A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment ... WOLE SOYINKA One's own self-worth is tied to the worth of the community to which one belongs, which is intima... WOLE SOYINKA We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where. WOLE SOYINKA But theater, because of its nature, both text, images, multimedia effects, has a wider base of commu... WOLE SOYINKA Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will h... WOLE SOYINKA All religions accept that there is something called 'criminality.' And criminality cannot be... WOLE SOYINKA An idyllic period of my existence was when I had a den attached to my home... a writing den, and no ... WOLE SOYINKA After the death of the sadistic dictator Gen. Sanni Abacha in 1998, Nigeria underwent a one-year tra... WOLE SOYINKA No writer has a right to make that much money. Indeed, without diabolical assistance, no writer can. WOLE SOYINKA But when you're deprived of it for a lengthy period then you value human companionship. But you ... WOLE SOYINKA Seven is the magic figure, because that's a symbolic figure of my favorite deity, Ogun. WOLE SOYINKA Probably to me the greatest singer, female voice, is Billie Holiday. And one of the most moving for ... WOLE SOYINKA England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist Muslims. Its social logic is to allow all religions... WOLE SOYINKA [It] takes a jaundiced view of the much-vaunted glorious past of Africa. And I suppose since then I'... WOLE SOYINKA It's the place to begin, always -- to return to home, literally. WOLE SOYINKA Obasanjo has openly endorsed violence as a means of governance, embraced and empowered individuals w... WOLE SOYINKA There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to ... WOLE SOYINKA My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a cert... WOLE SOYINKA Just like birds, hunters know no borders. WOLE SOYINKA Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me persona... WOLE SOYINKA I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence. WOLE SOYINKA The Lagos of my childhood was a well-laid-out maritime city. WOLE SOYINKA A tiger doesn't proclaim his tigritude, he pounces WOLE SOYINKA Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for ... WOLE SOYINKA One thing I can tell you is this, that I am not a methodical writer. WOLE SOYINKA There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other peopl... WOLE SOYINKA I've done a lot of guerrilla theater in my time. WOLE SOYINKA We are moving towards a total mockery of constitutionalism. The president has crossed the line of po... WOLE SOYINKA Obasanjo has acted sufficiently against the constitution to warrant his impeachment. There is more t... WOLE SOYINKA My father used to tell me stories before I fell asleep. When the children would gather, at a certain... WOLE SOYINKA Suddenly the world has run amok and left you alone and sane behind WOLE SOYINKA an opportunity for Nigerian civic society, an opportunity for the Nigerian military, and an opportun... WOLE SOYINKA Let's say there are prospects for a new Nigeria, but I don't think we have a new Nigeria yet. WOLE SOYINKA Writing in certain environments carries with it an occupational risk. WOLE SOYINKA I like to say, 'I spend one-third of my time in Nigeria, one-third in Europe or America, and one... WOLE SOYINKA We Nigerians must reclaim our sovereignty, our civic entitlements. WOLE SOYINKA The writer is the visionary of his people... He anticipates, he warns. WOLE SOYINKA African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance. WOLE SOYINKA The problem with literature, with writing, is that it works sometimes in terms of correction of soci... WOLE SOYINKA And gradually they're beginning to recognize the fact that there's nothing more secure than ... WOLE SOYINKA There's something about the theater which makes my fingertips tingle. WOLE SOYINKA There's a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in rel... WOLE SOYINKA I began writing early - very, very early... I was already writing short stories for the radio and se... WOLE SOYINKA Power, of course. The primitive fear of being controlled. It does not matter whether it is an invasi... WOLE SOYINKA the very least we can live with is an agreement that does not reduce us to slaves of imposition, but... WOLE SOYINKA