MUHAMMAD ALI’S SOUL OF A BUTTERFLY

” Myths are about gods, legends are about heroes, and fairy tales describe the endless words of magic and dreams. This book is neither myth nor fairy tale, but the story of a legend with unwavering conviction.” Words of Hana Yasmeen Ali who collaborated with her legendary father to give us his reflection’s of his wonderful life’s journey.

I have gathered some of the pure reflections of “the Greatest.” Enjoy!

1. “We spend more time learning how to make a living than we do learning to make a life.”
2. “Many of the philosophies, stories, and ideas that have touched my soul and inspired my heart I learned from the study of Islam.”
3. “Spirituality is recognizing the divine light that is within us all. It doesn’t belong to any particular religion; it belongs to everyone.”
4. “The more I study about God and Islam, the more I realize how little I know. So, I am still studying, and I’m still learning because there’s nothing as great as working for God.”
5. “Though some people may see themselves as better or more important than others, in God’s eyes we are all equal, and it’s what is in our hearts that matters.”
6. “I believe we can only be generous when we expect nothing in return.”
7. “At night when I go to bed, I ask myself, “If I don’t wake up tomorrow, would I be proud of how I lived today.”
8. “ We all have the same God, we just serve him differently, Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans, all have different names, but they contain water. So do religions have different names and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways, forms, and times.”
9. “I studied life and I studied people.”
10. “Where is a man’s wealth? His wealth is in his knowledge. If his wealth is in the bank, he doesn’t possess it.”
11. “My soul has grown over the years, and some of my views have changed. As long as I’m alive, I will continue to try understand more because the work of the heart is never done. All through my life I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested. Every step of the way I believe God has been with me. And, more than ever, I know that he is with me now. I have learned to live my life one step, one breath, and one moment at a time, but it was a long road. I set out on a journey of love, seeking truth, peace and understanding. I am still learning.”
12. “A heart enlightened by love is more precious than all of the diamonds and gold in the world.”
13. “It is the heart that perceives beauty.”
14. “Think well of all, be patient with all, and try to find the good in all.”
15. “Hating is wrong, no matter who does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”
16. “What happens to any of us anywhere in the world had better be the business of us all.”
17. “Little Black boys and girls had no public role models. We didn’t have any heroes who looked like us. There was no one for us to identify with, and we didn’t know where we fit in.”
18. “Somehow, I was going to make a difference in the world.”
19. “God would not place a burden on a man’s shoulders knowing he could not carry it, nor would he give a person purpose without significance.”
20. “I had faced my fear and gained the self-respect and self-confidence I needed to continue my boxing career.”
21. “I realized that we are only brave when we have something to lose and we still try. We can’t be brave without fear.”
22. “There are little choices we make every day that set the standard for the rest of our lives.”
23. “There comes a time in every person’s life when he has to choose the course his life will take. On my journey I have found that the path to self-discovery is the most liberating choice of all.”
24. “What really matters is how you feel about yourself.”
25. “Our lives are a journey during which we must find our own answers and make our own paths.”
26. “The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did he was twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”
27. “The day I met Islam, I found a power within myself that no man can destroy or take away. When I first walked into the mosque, I didn’t find Islam; it found me.”
28. “The slum wasn’t in the neighbourhood; it was in the heart and soul of the people.”
29. “I hoped to inspire others to take control of their lives and to live with pride and determination. I thought perhaps if they saw that I was living my life the way i chose to live- without fear and with determination- they might dare to take the risks that could set them free.”
30. “I had to loud, proud and confident.”

 

 

 

Muhammad Ali

31. “But sometimes all you had to do is to breathe, and people will have an opinion on how you drew that breath.”
32. “I have been curious about the world around me and my place in it.”
33. “That’s when I learned how self-promotion and colorful controversy could draw in the crowds.”
34. “I am beautiful. I am the greatest. I can’t be beat. I’m the fastest thing on two feet, and I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. If you talk jive, you’ll fall in five.”
35. “People who criticize usually talk about what they wish they could do. So I never paid much attention to critics about anything negative.”
36. “The critics only made me work harder.”
37. “I talk to God every day, if God is with me, no one can defeat me.”
38. “A worldly loss often turns into a Spiritual gain.”
39. “The greater our level of understanding, the harder the tests becomes. The more we master the challenges, the deeper our faith becomes.”
40. “When God is with you, no one can defeat you.”
41. “There is a door to the heart of every man; it is either open or closed. When we value material things more than we value the well-being of mankind, the door to the heart is closed. When we are decent to others and share ourselves through kindness and compassion, the door to the heart is open. The greatest truth in life is that the happiness and peace of each can be reached only through the happiness and peace of all.”
42. “The greatness of a man does not depend on his material possessions. Regardless of how wealthy he may be, if his heart is not pure, he cannot be great.”
43. “Service to others is the rent we pay for our room in heaven.”
44. “I always try to make time for the poor and powerless, the young and the old. So that is why.”
45. “Muslims aren’t supposed to trick people and I try not to do that.”
46. “True success is reaching our potential without compromising our values.”
47. ”You have to work your way up.”
48. “In order to reach the top of the mountain, you have to climb every rock.”
49. “We must always be mindful that each day is a gift from God that can be lost at any moment.”
50. “Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something deep inside-a desire, a dream, and a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
51. “We create our own realities according to our thoughts and beliefs.”
52. “Outrun the people who quit when they feel discomfort, outrun the people who stop because of despair, outrun the people who are delayed because of prejudice, outrun the people who surrender to failure, and outrun the opponent who loses sight of the goal. Because if you want to win, the will can never retire, the race can never stop, and the faith can never weaken.”
53. “Age was mind over matter- as long as you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
54. “My toughest opponent has always been me.”
55. “It’s the heart that makes a man great-his intentions, his thoughts, and his convictions.”
56. “Every day is different, and some days are better than others, but no matter how challenging the day, I get up and live it. And it is the combination of will and faith that helps me do it.”
57. “There are signs all around us, most of which go unnoticed, but when we do pay attention to the little things, we witness how even the smallest of creatures have challenges and obstacles to overcome, and then our own don’t seem insurmountable.”
58. “Whatever the future holds, I will come out on top.”
59. “Islam has changed my life in every way. It pulled me up and kept me clean as a human being.”
60. “We must always be grateful, even for the hardships we have known.”
61. “It is through selfless acts that we inspire change.”
62. “If the angels who are entirely spiritual could fulfill the purpose of creation, God would not have created man.”

 

THE TROUBLE WITH AFRICA

“In this book Chinua Achebe broke silence at the time of the 1983 Nigerian elections. The style and wit in part cover his deep desperation.”

Though the book was written to reflect Nigeria several years ago, it captures and highlights the problem with Africa at large in these modern times and beyond. It is a handbook for every true African who wishes to see his continent rise above the political iniquities of our time. So it is better captured ” the trouble with Africa.”

I have captured some of the statement therein for you to savor and relish. Enjoy!

1. “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”
2. “Nigeria is not beyond change. I am saying that Nigeria can change today if she discovers leaders who have the will, the ability and vision. Such people are rare in any time or place. But it is the duty of enlightened citizens to lead the way in their discovery and to create an atmosphere conducive to their emergence. If this conscious effort is not made, good leaders, like good money, will be driven out by bad.”
3. “Why is it that our corruption, gross inequities, our noisy vulgarity, our selfishness, our ineptitude seem so much stronger than the good influences at work in our society?”
4. “One of the commonest manifestations of under-development is a tendency among the ruling elite to live in a world of make-believe and unrealistic expectations.”
5. “Nigeria is not a great nation. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth.”
6. “Nigerians are what they are only because their leaders are not what they should be.”
7. “A true patriot will always demand the highest standards of his country and accept nothing but the best for and from his people. He will be outspoken in condemnation of their short-comings without giving away to superiority, despair or cynicism. That is my idea of a patriot.”
8. “Quite clearly patriotism is not going to be easy or comfortable in a country as badly run as Nigeria is. And this is not made any easier by the fact no matter how badly a country may be run there will always be some people whose personal, selfish interests are, in the short term at least, well served by the mismanagement and the social in equities. Naturally they will be extremely loud in their adulation of themselves off as patriots and to vilify those who disagree with them as trouble-makers or even traitors. But doomed is the nation which permits such people to define patriotism for it. Their definition would be about as objective as a Rent Act devised by a committee of avaricious landlords, or the encomiums that a colony of blood-sucking ticks might be expected to shower upon the bull on whose back they batten. Spurious patriotism is one of the hallmarks of Nigeria’s privileged classes whose generally unearned positions of sudden power and wealth must seem unreal even to themselves. To lay the ghost of their insecurity they talk patriotically. But their protestation is only mouth-deep; it does not exist in their heads nor in their hearts and certainly not in the work of their hands.”
9. “ One shining act of bold, selfless leadership at the top, such as unambiguous refusal to be corrupt or tolerate corruption at the fountain of authority, will radiate powerful sensations of well-being and pride through every nerve and artery of national life.”
10. “Let us take a hypothetical case where two candidates A and B apply to fill a very important and strategic position. A has the right qualification of competence and character but is of the “wrong” tribe, while B, less qualified, belongs to the “right” tribe, and so gets the job. A goes away embittered. B throws a party and then messes up the job. The greatest sufferer is the nation itself which has to contain the legitimate grievance of a wronged citizen; accommodate the incompetence of a favored citizen and, more important and of greater scope, endure a general decline of morale and subversion of efficiency caused by an erratic system of performance and reward.”
11. “We have displayed a consistent inclination since we assumed management of our own affairs to opt for mediocrity and compromise, to pick a third and fourth eleven to play for us. And the result: we have always failed and will always fail to make it to the world league.”
12. “Without peace no meaningful social programme can be undertaken; without justice social order is constantly threatened. And the reason is simple. A normal sensible person will wait for his turn if he is sure that the shares will go round; if not he might start a scramble.”
13. “These are the real victims of our callous system, the wretched of the earth. They are largely silent and invisible. They don’t appear on front pages; they do not initiate industrial actions. They drink bad water and suffer from all kinds of preventable diseases. There are no hospitals within reach of them; but even if there were they couldn’t afford to attend. There may be a school of sorts which their children go to when there is “free education” and withdraw from when levies are demanded. The politician may pay them a siren-visit once in four years and promise to give them this and that and the other. He never says that what he gives them is theirs in the first place. The things that are uppermost in their minds are basic, like clean water. The politician agrees; but there is financial constraint now. The plans are drawn by my government; water will be flowing by 1986. Meanwhile I give you the most modern television station in Africa. Surely this will make you smile.”
14. “Dear reader, you may think I over-draw the picture. Let me assure you that I have only sketched in the tip of the iceberg. As a class, you and I and our friends who comprise the elite are incredibly blind. We refuse to see what we do not want to see. That is why we have not brought about the changes which our society must undergo or be written off. We have no option really; if we do not move, we shall be moved. The masses whose name we take in vain are not amused; they do not enjoy their punishment and poverty. We say thoughtlessly that politics is a game of numbers. So it is. The masses own the nation because they have the numbers. And when they move they will do it knowing that God loves them or He would not have made so many of them.”

15.” There is no provision in the laws of Nigeria or the constitution which says that a man who comes first to a public counter should be served before the man who comes later. But our sense of natural justice and our intelligence tell us that it should be so because (a) it is only fair and (b) experience has shown that any other way is liable to create disorder and delay.”

16. Discipline does not invite supervision by an external force but is imposed by the individual from within. Indeed discipline is either self-discipline or it is nothing at all.”

17, ” Leaders are in the language of psychologists, role models. People look up to them and copy their actions, behavior and even mannerisms Therefore if a leader lacks discipline the effect is apt to spread automatically down to his followers. The less discerning among these (I.e the cart majority will accept his action quite simply as “the done thing,” while the more critical may worry about it for a while and then settle the matter by telling themselves that the normal rules of social  behavior need not apply to those in power.”

18. ” Fortunately for society power does not only entice, intimidate and subdue, it may also incite to resentment and rebellion.”
19. ” In summary the indiscipline of an ordinary citizen, regrettable as it may be, does not pose a fatal threat to society because it can be generally be contained by his fellows or, at worst, by a couple of policemen. But the indiscipline of a leader is a different matter altogether. First, he has no fellows to restrain him, and the policeman who might have done it are all in his employ. Second, power, by giving him immunity from common censure, makes the leader the envy of the powerless who will turn him into a role model and imitate his actions of indiscipline. An explosive of such actions occurring all over the place at once brings the whole society under a climate of indiscipline. Third, and fortunately, a leader’s undisciplined actions can also incite to anger and rebellion.
20. ” One of the penalties of exalted power is loneliness.”
21. ” In antiquity we read, for example, of Harun al Rashid, an eighth-century caliph of Baghdad, who frequently disguised himself and went unaccompanied into the streets of his city by sat or night to see the life of his subjects in its ungarnished and uncensored reality.”
22. ” Nigerians are corrupt because the system under which they live today makes corruption easy and profitable; they will cease to be corrupt when corruption is made difficult and inconvenient.”
23. A few years ago a new cultural facility was opened in London by Queen Elizabeth 11. It was called the Barbican Center and it cost the British tax-payer £150 million, which is roughly equivalent to Ñ180 million. It was such a magnificent structure and that one account described it as the Eighth Wonder of the world We know that Nigeria in the last decade has built many structures worth more (or rather that cost more) than 180 million Naira. But show me one wonder among them, unless it be the wonder of discrepancy between cost and value.”
24. ” The test of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.”
25. ” But to initiate change the President of this country must take, and be seen to take, a decisive first step of ridding his administration of all persons on whom the slightest wind of corruption and scandal has blown. When he can summon up the courage to do that he will find himself grown overnight to such stature and authority that he will become Nigeria’s leader, not just its president. Only then can he take on and conquer corruption in the nation.”
26. ” Why do you seek political office? Why do you want to rule?”
27. ” We have stood too long on the side-lines; and too many of us have adopted the cynical attitude that since you cannot beat them you must join them. Our inaction or cynical action are a serious betrayal of our education, of our historic mission and of succeeding generations who will have no future unless we save it now for them. To be educated is, after all, to develop the questioning habit, to be scriptural of easy promises and to use past experience creatively.”

STATEMENTS FROM 21 LAWS; FOLLOW THEM AND PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW YOU

At Success Book Club (organization formed to give the youth a platform to uplift themselves through reading), our book for the month of August was 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership written by John Calvin Maxwell.

The book is one of the best if not the best on the honored subject of leadership. The book makes a loud claim the ” it is not the position that makes the leader but the leader that makes the position.”

In order not to bore you with hypes, i just want you to follow the powerful statements i highlighted from the book so you empower yourself. Don’t forget to let me know your best statement. Thank you!

 

Enjoy!

The book. 

1. “Communicators make the complex simple.”
2. “Every book is a conversation between the author and the individual reading it.”
3. “None of us is as smart as all of us.”
4. “The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be.”
5. “When the country is experiencing hard times, it elects a new president.”
6. “Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.”
7. “It’s not the position that makes the leader; it’s the leader that makes the position.”
8. “The proof of leadership is found in the followers.”
9. “Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
10. “Knowledge alone won’t make someone a leader, but without knowledge, no one can become one.”
11. “The very essence of all power to influence lies in getting the other person to participate.”
12. “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.”
13. “The secret of our success lies in our daily agenda.”
14. “I’ve yet to meet an unborn leader.”
15. “The ability to lead is really a collection of skills, nearly all of which can be learned and improved.”
16. “Leadership is complicated. It has many facets: respect, experience, emotional strength, people skills, discipline, vision, momentum, timing- the list goes on.”
17. “Successful leaders are learners. And the learning process is ongoing, a result of self-discipline and perseverance.”
18. “To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.”
19. “Being put in charge is not the same as being a leader.”
20. “I have made it a practice to read books, listen to tapes, and go to conferences on leadership.”
21. “I believe that in about twenty years, you can be a great leader. I want to encourage you to make yourself a lifelong learner of leadership. Read books, listen to tapes regularly, and keep attending seminars. And whenever you come across a golden nugget of truth or a significant quote, file it away for the future.”
22. “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.”
23. “You can map out a fight plan or a life plan. But when the action starts, you’re down to your reflexes. That’s where your road work shows. If you 0cheated on that in the dark of the morning, you’re getting found out now under the bright lights.”
24. “A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others do.”
25. “Because most natural leaders are activists.”
26. “I believe the bottom line in leadership isn’t how far we advance others. That is achieved by serving others and adding value to their lives.”
27. “Seek always to do good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give sometime to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.”
28. “Only a life lived in the service of others is worth living.” Albert Einstein.
29. “The handshake of the host affects the taste of the roast.” Ben Franklin.
30. “Trust is the foundation of leadership.”
31. “Leaders cannot lose trust and continue to influence others.”
32. “When it comes to leadership, you just can’t take shortcuts.”
33. “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy.”
34. “No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.”
35. “The only thing that walks back from the tomb with the mourners and refuses to be buried is the character of a man. This is true. What a man is survives him.”
36. “Don’t shave the truth, don’t tell white lies, and don’t fudge numbers. Be truthful even when it hurts. To develop authenticity, be yourself with everyone.”
37. “I had reasoned this out in my mind: there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for my liberty as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.” Harriet Tubman.
38. “Dead folks tell no tales.”
39. “A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.” Henry Kissinger
40. “And it’s hard to argue with a good track record.”
41. “One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.”
42. “Who you are dictates what you see.”
43. “Leaders are readers.”
44. “No one can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.”
45. “A team should be an extension of the coach’s personality.”
46. “Few things are more frustrating to a good leader than a partner with a bureaucratic mindset.”
47. “You can’t move people to action unless you first move them with emotion.”
48. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
49. “I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as forty-four individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of whom wants to live, each of whom wants to do good.”
50. “People don’t heed the call of an uncertain trumpet. Be confident and be yourself.”
51. “Leaders are dealers in hope.” Napoleon Bonaparte.
52. “When you give people hope, you give them a future.”
53. “Never underestimate the power of making connections and building relationships with people.”
54. “The vision of the leader becomes the aspiration of the people.”
55. “To lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart.”
56. “Good leaders are good communicators.”
57. “Read books on communication.”
58. “Nobody does anything great alone.”
59. “Leaders have to deliver.”
60. “You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things.” Mother Theresa.
    

    Airborne, studying the book.

61. “What baloney! There are no lone ranger leaders.”
62. “It’s lonely at the top so you had better know why you’re there.”
63. “Who could be a better companion than someone who lifts you up, not as a yes-man but a solid supporter and friend?”
64. “As iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other.”
65. “The only way you can increase your impact is through others.”
66. “A leaders potential is determined by those closest to him.”
67. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
68. “Self-conscious people are rarely good leaders.”
69. “And you can’t give what you don’t have.”
70. “To those who have confidence in themselves, change is a stimulus because they believe one person can make a difference and influence what goes on around them.”
71. “Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”
72. “You don’t have to be a leader of Lincoln’s caliber to empower others. The main ingredient for empowering others is a high belief in people. If you believe in others, they will believe in themselves.”
73. “Enlarging others makes you larger.”
74. “Leaders are stewards of the actions.”
75. “The better the leader’s actions, the better their people’s.”
76. “Leaders can afford to be uncertain, but we cannot afford to be unclear. People will not follow fuzzy leadership.”
77. “No written word
    nor spoken plea
    Can teach our youth
    what they should be

            Nor all the books
             on the shelves
          It’s what the teachers
             are themselves.”

78. “Nothing is more convincing than living out what you say you believe.”
79. “Nothing is more confusing than people who give good advice but set a bad example.”
80. “Leaders are responsible for the performance of their people. The buck stops with them.”
81. “Leading myself is the toughest.”
82. “There is more to leadership than just technical skills. Character is also vital to leadership.”
83. “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”
84. “An organization with no momentum is like a train at a dead stop.”
85. “When was the last time you heard of a team on the cusp of winning a championship complain about injuries.”
86. “Even average people can perform far above average in an organization with great momentum.”
87. “Of all the leaders I meet, the ones who become the most frustrated are those who try to make progress and develop momentum in bureaucratic organizations. In those organizations, people are often marking time. They’ve given up, and they either don’t want change or don’t believe it’s possible.”
88. “You cannot kindle a fire in any other heart until it is burning within your own.”
89. “Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment.”
90. “A leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, ‘wrong jungle’.”
91. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.”
92. “Life is too short not to do some things you love.”
93. “And passion provides the fuel in the person’s life to keep him going.”
94. “A leader must give up going up.”
95. “The heart of good leadership is sacrifice.”
96. “Life is a series of trades, one thing for another.”
97. “When you become a leader, you lose the right to think about yourself.”
98. “Today’s success is the greatest threat to tomorrow’s success.”
99. “Leadership requires continual change, constant improvement and ongoing sacrifice.”
100. “More than any other person, his words and actions make an impact.” – Talking about the President of the land.
101. “I’ll make it a practice to learn and grow in one significant area every year.”
102. “There comes a special moment in everyone’s life, a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when he seizes it, will fulfill his mission – a mission for which he is uniquely qualified. In that moment, he finds greatness. It is his finest hour.” Winston Churchill.
103. “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
104. “Leaders are naturally impatient……. Leaders want to move past.”
105. “Our time here on earth is limited and we need to make the most out of it. Life is not a dress rehearsal.”
106. “Most people simply accept their lives – they don’t lead them.”
107. “Someday, people will summarize your life in a single sentence. My advice: pick it now.”
108. “ We have made at least a start in discovering the meaning in human life when we plant shade trees under which we know full well we will never sit.”
109. “ No, our ability as leaders will not be measured by the buildings we have established, or what our team accomplished during our tenure. You and I will be judged by how well the people we invested in carried on after we are gone.”
110. “ A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession.”

 

THE CHINESE ARE FAR ADVANCED; THROUGH READING

I was at the Gawbofest 2016. Gawbofest is the  Ghana  Association of Writers Book Festival. The Guest of honor that day was the  Chinese Ambassador to Ghana.

In her address, she delivered very powerful words on reading that really linger in mind. As usual, i capture it here, unedited.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Respected Mr. Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, President of Ghana Association of Writers (GAW),

Respected Prof. Atukwei Okai, Secretary General of Pan African Writers’ Association,

Respected Dr. Doris Dartey, Chairperson of the Graphic Communications,

Respected Mr. Denja Abdullahi, President of Association of Nigerian Authors,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Students,

Good morning!

It is a great pleasure for me to attend the GAW Book Festival as a special guest. I would like to express my appreciation to GAW for providing such a platform of communication and exchange for numerous book lovers in Ghana. The ancient Chinese sage Confucius once said, “Curiosity is more important than knowledge itself, and interest is even more important than pure curiosity”. The Book Festival helps arouse people’s interests in reading, foster good reading habits and promote the development of Ghana’s cultural industry.

As Chinese Ambassador to Ghana and also as an experienced reader, I would like to share the Chinese culture of reading with you first.

Chinese culture is extensive and profound with voluminous excellent books as vast as a misty ocean. As early as 3,000 years ago, Chinese people began to use pictogram, and gradually formed a traditional culture of respecting knowledge and advocating reading. The ancient Chinese mottoes and stories to encourage reading are countless, such as “There are houses of gold and ladies of beauty in the books”, which means reading helps us learn so much about beauty and truth that we can live a better life in our own ways. This is frequently referred to motivate students to read more books and study diligently to be men of insight. Chinese people believe that “One has to be a good scholar before he becomes a good official, and a good official should never stop learning”. This is to emphasize the importance that officials have to be well read and better educated. The Chinese excellent cultural classics are not only full of the principles of state governance, but also full of philosophies of life. Most ancient Chinese elites were erudite and informed, good at poetry and composition, uphold the Confucian value of “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, sincerity”, and played an important leading role in gradually forming the Chinese national personality of esteeming virtue, respecting knowledge, being diligent and eager to learn.

Reading as a man’s hobby may change his life. A nation advocating reading and attaching great importance to education would lift the nation’s comprehensive quality to flourish and grow. Highly regarding reading and education, so to speak, is a strong driving force to the great rejuvenation of Chinese nation. The strategies of “rejuvenating China through science and technology” and “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” currently adopted by Chinese government are also consistent with this paradigm.

However, for the time being, Chinese society faces the same problems with other countries such as “overall reading deficiency”, “fragmentation reading” and “snack reading” with the impact of modern life style. Chinese national leaders have showed their leadership in advocating reading and establishing a learning society. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang repeatedly emphasize that reading is their way of life. President Xi also makes specific demands on government officials at all levels to engage less in social events and more in reading and thinking. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is a universally acknowledged outstanding diplomat as well as a knowledgeable book lover. He often recommends excellent books to his colleagues in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, from which we all benefit a lot. The Chinese Embassy in Ghana also has a strong atmosphere of reading. Through establishing a Junior Diplomats Reading Club, we often share thoughts on new and good books with each other to enjoy the pleasure of reading.

Okoro with the Chinese Ambassador

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Students,

Reading books makes me know Ghana better. Before coming to Ghana, I had had more than a dozen years of work experience on African affairs. But I still don’t know much about Africa, especially African culture. Over the past two years in Ghana, I have read African Culture in Governance and Development written by Prof. Nana Kobina Nketsia V, Ghanaian Odyssey written by Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, works of Ghanaian leaders as President Kufuor and President Mahama, and even Proverbs of the Akans. Recently, I am reading Who Told the Most Incredible Stories, written by Hon. Naana Opoku-Agyemang, Minister of Education. At first I thought this is a set of picture books to kill time, later found out that it is a set of political, philosophical and sociological books for learning and fun, and very helpful in understanding African especially Ghanaian culture. I deeply realize that the shine of wisdom of excellent cultural classics can pass through history and go across time and space to be the common wealth of thoughts of humanity and a spirit bridge to connect different ethnic groups and civilizations. This Book Festival reconfirms that reading is the common need of mankind, regardless of skin color and national conditions.

Today is the birthday of the founding President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. 56 years ago, the elder generations of Chinese and Ghanaian leaders such as Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai and President Dr. Nkrumah decided to establish China-Ghana diplomatic relations with extraordinary foresight and sagacity, which made Ghana one of the first countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to establish diplomatic relations with China. In recent years, the two countries enjoy frequent political exchanges and rapid economic and trade development. China has become one of the most important trade partners and foreign investors for Ghana, with bilateral trade volume reaching 6.6 billion US dollars in 2015. Cultural and people-to-people exchanges are ever-increasing. So far, the Chinese government has offered scholarships to more than 500 Ghanaian students. More than 4,600 Ghanaian self-financed students are studying in China, ranking No.1 in that of Africa. In 2015, Chinese government provided more than 700 training opportunities to Ghana. Intra-school exchanges and jointly running classes between universities of two countries become popular. The Confucius Institutes at University of Ghana and University of Cape Coast serve as important base for Ghanaian people to learn Chinese culture. The Chinese Embassy in Ghana has built “China-Ghana Friendship ICT Labs” for five regions in this country and will build three more this year. Chinese companies such as Huawei and Chinese business community at large are actively endeavored to public welfare undertakings, such as renovating libraries, building multimedia classrooms, donating books, and supporting and participating in the cause of educational and cultural development in Ghana.

Late last year, at the successfully held Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China launched “China-Africa Ten Major Cooperation Plans” and pledged 60 billion US dollars’ funding support to Africa. Against this background, China-Ghana relations and cooperation in various areas face great opportunities, and yet at the same time put forward higher request to the mutual understanding between our two countries and peoples. Through the platform of GAW Book Festival, I sincerely hope various cultural and educational agencies, publishers, booksellers and writers will enhance the study of China-Africa relations, publish more relevant books, as well as advocate to general public China-Ghana and China-Africa friendship so as to promote mutual understanding and offer advice and suggestions for China-Ghana and China-Africa relations. I hope numerous NGOs including GAW will continue to support and participate in youth and cultural exchanges and cooperation to make more contributions to the development of China-Ghana relations.

The Ambassador donated some books to GAW.

I hope the students will read more books about Chinese history and culture, current development situation and China-Ghana relations, and become supporters and participants of the cause of China-Ghana friendship. A quote from Xunzi, another Chinese ancient sage goes like this, “If one doesn’t climb the high mountain, he won’t know how high the sky is; if one doesn’t go to the deep ocean, he won’t know how deep the earth is”. So if you don’t have personal feelings on the broad and profound Chinese culture, you can’t understand how wonderful it is. Today, I brought you some books about Chinese culture and China-Ghana relations. “To open a book is always beneficial”. I hope these books will inspire you.

Finally, I wish today’s Book Festival a complete success. I wish everyone present would read more good books, make more new friends, and learn more new knowledge.

Happy Founders Day! Thank you!

FIVE TOSTAN QUOTES THAT LINGERS IN MY BALD-HEAD

I am in Senegal. I will describe my eight  days stay here so far as the most eye-opening and revealing moments in my nascent life. Until i came here, i had nearly lost hope that a community could champion the cause of its development holistically, involving all and sundry in the change process. If you want to know how that is possible, then i want to introduce you to Tostan.
Tostan has a mission to ” empower African communities to bring about sustainable development and positive social transformation based on respect for human rights. It is their belief ” that through this mission they  can ensure every person—woman, man, girl, and boy—is able to live a life of dignity.”

How It All Started

I want Tostan to speak for itself.  It is as follows:

” Our origins date back to 1974 when Molly Melching first arrived in Senegal as an exchange student from the United States.

After completing her studies, Molly stayed to work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Dakar, creating the first radio program for children in national languages. Her work soon took her to rural villages, where she found that many development efforts were not addressing the true needs and realities of the communities in ways that were relevant to their lives.

Relying heavily on community feedback, Molly and a team of Senegalese cultural specialists developed a new type of development program, the Community Empowerment Program (CEP). This program respectfully engaged communities by working in their own languages and using traditional methods of learning. It facilitated community ownership over the development process, allowing communities to fulfill their own potential.

With World-wide celebrated Moly Melching.

Their efforts grew throughout the 1980s, leading Molly to found Tostan—which means ‘breakthrough’ in the Wolof language—in 1991. Over the past 24 years, Molly’s original concepts have developed into a leading model for community-led change — a model that is now implemented in 22 languages across six African countries and is supported at the international, national, and grassroots levels.”

As i type this, we are under intense training on Tostan’s Human Rights Approach to Community Development and i have really learnt a lot.

I want to share with you five quotes shared to us by Molly and my personal reflective ones after three days training. Enjoy!

1. “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

             – Eleanor Roosevelt, “In Our Hands” (1958 speech delivered on the tenth anniversary of  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

2.  ” To many Muslims the Qur’an is the Magna Carta of human rights and a large part of its concern is to free human beings from the bondage of traditionalism, authoritarianism (religious, political , economic, or any other), tribalism, racism, sexism, slavery or anything else that prohibits or inhibits human beings from actualizing the Qur’anic vision of human destiny embodied in the classic proclamation: “Towards Allah is the limit.”

         – Riffat Hasasan, Islamic Rights Specialist.

3. ” You never change things by fighting the existing. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing obsolete.”     – R. Buckminster Fuller

4. ” We should not go to the people and say, “Here we are. We come to give you the charity of our presence, to teach you our science, to show you your errors, your lack of culture, your ignorance of elementary things.” We should go instead with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit to learn at that great source of wisdom that is the people.

                         – Ernesto Che Guevara,“On Revolutionary Medicine”, speech delivered to the Cuban Militia (16 August 1960).

5. ” Love is the answer.”

You should know more about Tostan here.. Please do!

NKRUMAH ROARS!

 

At the  launch of Success Book Club (organization formed to give the youth a platform to uplift themselves and move the world through reading, I made a statement before I called a member to read from the book Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah. I stated “ this is a book  that is very dear to my heart. If you read this book as a Ghanaian, you realize we have Presidents and we have jokers.” And I still stand by my words.

I can’t reproduce the whole book here. I can only give you some quotes so you relish and cherish them. I captioned them Nkrumah Roars  because Nkrumah was a lion who stood tall. Enjoy!

 

1. “ So many worlds, so much to do,

So little done, such things to be.”   – In Memoriam, Tennyson

 

2. “In so far as officialdom was con­cerned, it was the line of least resistance.”
3. “Polygamy was quite legal and even to-day it is quite in order for a man to have as many wives as he can afford. In fact the more wives a man can keep the greater is his social position. However uncon­ventional and unsatisfactory this way of life may appear to those who are confirmed monogamists, and without in any way trying to defend my own sex, it is a frequently accepted fact that man is naturally polygamous.”
4. “You can play a tune of sorts on the white keys, and you can play a tune of sorts on the black keys, but for harmony you must use both the black and the white.” – Dr James Kwegyir Aggrey
5. “That only a free and independent people—a people with a government of their own—can claim equality, racial or otherwise, with another”
6. “What other countries have taken three hundred years or more to achieve, a once dependent territory must try to accom­plish in a generation if it is to survive. Unless it is, as it were, ‘ jet-propelled ‘, it will lag behind and thus risk everything for which it has fought.”
7. “Without discipline true freedom cannot survive.”
8. “It is far better to be free to govern, or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else.”
9. “So far I have been able to make you hungry but I have not been able to satisfy your hunger. Pray for me that when I come back I may satisfy your hunger.” – Dr. James Kwegyir Aggrey.
10. “Goodbye. Remember to trust in God and yourself.” – Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, in a telegram he sent to Nkrumah as he was leaving for the US.
11. “One day Padmore and I were sitting on one of these cafes discussing some problem or other. All of a sudden I became conscious that we were being carefully scrutinized.  I raised my eyes and there, peering at us with most profound interest, was a small girl.  Suddenly she screamed with excitement as she said: Mummy! It talks!”
12. “One day I received a letter from Ako Adjei, who was then back in the Gold Coast, asking me if I would return and take on the job of general secretary of the United Gold Coast Conven­tion. He explained that the U.G.C.C. was being faced with the problem of how to reconcile the leadership of the intelligentsia with the broad masses of the people and, knowing of my political activities in both the United States and in England, he had recommended to the Executive Committee that I should be in­vited to become general secretary.”
13. “If all the leaders of the UGCC failed them, Kwame Nkrumah will never fail them” – B.Danquah, after Nkrumah delivered his maiden speech as Secretary of UGCC.”
14. “Throughout history, great things have often had small beginnings.”
15. “In establishing the Ghana National College, we have taken upon ourselves a grave responsibility. The times are changing and we must change with them. In doing so we must combine the best in Western culture with the best in African The magic story of human achievement gives irrefutable proof that as soon as an awakened intelligentsia emerges among so-called subject people, it becomes the vanguard of the struggle against alien rule. It provides the nucleus of the dominant wish and inspiration, the desire to be free to breathe the air of freedom which is theirs to breathe. If we cannot find breadth of outlook: and lofty patriotism in our schools and colleges, where else, in the name of humanity, can we find them?”
16. “’The African today is conscious of his capabilities. Educational and cultural backwardness is the result of historical conditions.”
17. “Think! Study hard! Work with sustained effort! As never before we want thinkers- thinkers of great thoughts. We want doers-doers of deeds. Of what use is your education if you cannot help your country in her hour of need.”?
18. “No army can strike effectively if its forces are divided and fighting against themselves.”
19. “Unless the pot was kept constantly stirred, the contents would go stale.”
20. “It is better to be free to manage, or mismanage, your own affairs, than not to be free to mismanage or manage your own affairs.”
    

    Zainab Saeed, A student of Accra Girls reading from the book

21. “You look back. Don’t mind what is happening, or don’t mind what has happened. A new day is coming when the youth of Africa is going to wake up, and that re-awakening is going to be a challenge to civilization.”
22. “It was only by uniting the people that we would be able to hold our own in the world, that we would demand respect from other nations because we would have this force behind us.”
23. “In practical matters the end is not mere speculative knowledge of what is to be done, but rather the doing of it. It is not enough to know about virtue, then, but we must endeavor to possess it, and to use it….”
24. “To negotiate with forces that are hostile on matters of principle means to sacrifice principle itself. Principle is indisivisible. It is either wholly kept or wholly sacrificed. The slightest concession on matters of principle implies the abandonment of principle.
25. “Thus may we take pride in the name of Ghana, not out of romanticism, but as an inspiration for the future. It is right and proper that we should know about our past. For just as the future moves from the present so the present has emerged from the past. Nor need we be ashamed of our past. There was much in it of glory. What our ancestors achieved in the context of their contemporary society gives us confidence that we can create, out of that past, a glorious future, not in terms of war and military pomp, but in terms of social progress and of peace. For we repudiate war and violence. Our battles shall be against the old ideas that keep men trammeled in their own greed; against the crass stupidities that breed hatred, fear and inhumanity. The heroes of our future will be those who can lead our people out of the stifling fog of disintegration through serfdom, into the valley of light where purpose, endeavor and determination will create that brotherhood which Christ proclaimed two thousand years ago, and about which so much is said, but so little done.” – Motion of Destiny
26. “We must learn from the mistakes of others so that we may, in so far as we can, avoid a repetition of those tragedies which have overtaken other human societies.”
27. “And while yet we are making our claim for self-government I want to emphasize, Mr. Speaker, that self-government is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end, to the building of the good life to the benefit of all, regardless of tribe, creed, color or station in life. Our aim is to make this country a worthy place for all its citizens, a country that will be a shining light throughout the whole continent of Africa, giving inspiration far beyond its frontiers. And this we can do by dedicating ourselves to unselfish service to humanity. We must learn from the mistakes of others so that we may, in so far as we can, avoid a repetition of those tragedies which have overtaken other human societies. We must not follow blindly, but must endeavor to create. We must aspire to lead in the arts of peace. The foreign policy of our country must be dedicated to the service of peace and fellowship. We repudiate the evil doctrines of tribal chauvinism, racial prejudice and national hatred. We repudiate these evil ideas because in creating that brotherhood to which we aspire, we hope to make a reality, within the bounds of our small country, of all the grandiose ideologies which are supposed to form the intangible bonds holding together the British Common­wealth of Nations in which we hope to remain. We repudiate racial prejudice and national hatred, because we do not wish to be a disgrace to these high ideals.” – Motion of Destiny
28. “Man’s dearest possession is life, and since it is given him to live but once, he must so live as not to be besmeared with the shame of a cowardly existence and trivial past, so live that dying he might say: all my life and all my strength was given to the finest cause in the world- the liberation of mankind.”
29. “Nothing must be left to chance and there is no room for complacency.”
30. “Our business carefully to cultivate in our minds, to rear to the most perfect vigour and maturity, every sort of generous and honest feeling that belongs to our nature. To bring the dispositions that are lovely in private life into the service and conduct of the commonwealth, so to be patriots as not to forget we are gentlemen”.
31. “We have frequent examples to show that there comes a time in the history of all colonial peoples when they must, because of their will to throw off the hampering shackles of colonialism, boldly assert their God-given right to be free of a foreign ruler. To-day we are here to claim this right to our independence.” –  Motion of Destiny
32. “The right of a people to decide their own destiny, to make their way in freedom, is not to be measured by the yardstick of color or degree of social development. It is an inalienable right of peoples which they are powerless to exercise when forces, stronger than they themselves, by whatever means, for whatever reasons, take this right away from them. If there is to be a criterion of a people’s preparedness for self-government, then I say it is their readiness to assume the responsibilities of ruling themselves. For who but a people themselves can say when they are prepared? How can others judge when that moment has arrived in the destiny of a subject people? What other gauge can there be?” – Motion of Destiny
33. ”We have here in our country a stable society. Our economy is healthy, as good as any for a country of our size. In many respects, we are very much better off than many sovereign states. And our potentialities are large. Our people are fundamentally homogeneous, nor are we plagued with religious and tribal problems. And, above all, we have hardly any color bar. In fact, the whole democratic tradition of our society precludes the herrenvolk doctrine. The remnants of this doctrine are now an anachronism in our midst, and their days are numbered.” – Motion of Destiny
34. “We have traveled long distances from the days when our fathers came under alien subjugation to the present time. We stand now at the threshold of self-government and do not waver. The paths have been tortuous, and fraught with peril, but the positive and tactical action we have adopted is leading us to the New Jerusalem, the golden city of our hearts’ desire! I am confident, therefore, that I express the wishes and feelings of the chiefs and people of this country in hoping that the final transfer of power to your Representative Ministers may be done in a spirit of amity and friendship…”
35. “ In the very early days of the Christian era, long before England had assumed any importance, long even before her people had united into a nation, our ancestors had attained a great empire, which lasted until the eleventh century, when it fell before the attacks of the Moors of the North. At its height that empire stretched from Timbuktu to Bamako, and even as far as to the Atlantic. It is said that lawyers and scholars were much respected in that empire and that the inhabitants of Ghana wore garments of wool, cotton, silk and velvet. There was trade in copper, gold and textile fabrics, and jewels and weapons of gold and silver were carried.” – Motion of Destiny
36. “As I said earlier, what we ask is not for ourselves on this side of the House, but for all the chiefs and people of this country— the right to live as free men in the comity of nations. Were not our ancestors ruling themselves before the white man came to these our shores? I have earlier made reference to the ancient history of our more distant forebears in Ghana. To assert that certain people are capable of ruling themselves while others are not “ready”, as the saying goes, smacks to me more of imperialism than of reason. Biologists of repute maintain that there is no such thing as a “superior” race. Men and women are as much products of their environment—geographic, climatic, ethnic, cultural, and social—as of instincts and physical heredity. We are determined to change our environment, and we shall advance in like manner.” – Motion of Destiny
37. “According to the motto of the valiant Accra Evening News— “We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility”. Doubtless we shall make mistakes as have all other nations. We are human beings and hence fallible. But we can try also to learn from the mistakes of others so that we may avoid the deepest pitfalls into which they have fallen. Moreover, the mistakes we may make will be our own mistakes, and it will be our responsibility to put them right. As long as we are ruled by others we shall lay our mistakes at their door, and our sense of responsibility will remain dulled.  Freedom brings responsibilities and our experience can be enriched only by the acceptance of these responsibilities.”
38. “The self-government which we demand, therefore, is the means by which we shall create the climate in which our people can develop their attributes and express their potentialities to the full. As long as we remain subject to an alien power, too much of our energy is diverted from constructive enterprise. Oppressive forces breed frustration. Imperialism and colonialism are a two-fold evil. This theme is expressed in the truism that “no nation which oppresses another can itself be free”. Thus we see that this evil not only wounds the person which is subject, but the dominant nation pays the price in a warping of their finer sensibilities through arrogance and greed. Imperialism and colonialism are a barrier to true friendship. For the short time since we Africans have had a bigger say in our affairs, the improved relations between us and the British have been most remarkable.”
39. “It must be recognized that co-operation is the greatest word of the century. With co-operation we can command peace, goodwill and concord. Without: chaos, confusion and ruin. But there can really be no co-operation between inferiors and superiors. Try as they may, there must come a time when the elements of superiority will seek to dictate, and the inferior ones will resent such dictation. It logically follows, therefore, that unless an honest effort is made to raise the inferior up to the prestige of the superior, and the latter can suffer it, all our talk of co-operation is so much empty gas. …” – Casely Hayford spoke this in 1925.
40. “The strands of history have brought our two countries together. We have provided much material benefit to the British people, and they in turn have taught us many good things. We want to continue to learn from them the best they can give us and we hope that they will find in us qualities worthy of emulation. In our daily lives, we may lack those material comforts regarded as essential by the standards of the modern world, because so much of our wealth is still locked up in our land; but we have the gifts of laughter and joy, a love of music, a lack of malice, an absence of the desire for vengeance for our wrongs, all things of intrinsic worth in a world sick of injustice, revenge, fear and want. We feel that there is much the world can learn from those of us who belong to what we might term the pre-technological societies.   These are values which we must not sacrifice unheedingly in pursuit of material progress.   That is why we say that self-government is not an end in itself.” – Motion of Destiny

41.  “We have to work hard to evolve new patterns, new social customs, new attitudes to life, so that while we seek the material, cultural and economic advancement of our country, while we raise their standards of life, we shall not sacrifice their fundamental happiness. That, I should say, Mr. Speaker, has been the greatest tragedy of Western society since the industrial revolution. In harnessing the forces of nature, man has become the slave of the machine, and of his own greed. If we repeat these mistakes and suffer the consequences which have overtaken those that made them, we shall have no excuse. This is a field of exploration for the young men and women now in our schools and colleges, for our sociologists and economists, for our doctors and our social welfare workers, for our engineers and town planners, for our scientists and our philosophers.       Mr. Speaker, when we politicians have long passed away and been forgotten, it is upon their shoulders that will fall the responsibility of evolving new forms of social institutions, new economic instruments to help build in our rich and fertile country a society where men and women may live in peace, where hate, strife, envy and greed, shall have no place. Mr. Speaker, we can only meet the challenge of our age as a free people. Hence our demand for our freedom, for only free men can shape the destinies of their future. Mr. Speaker, Honorable Members, we have great tasks before us. I say, with all seriousness, that it is rarely that human beings have such an opportunity for service to their fellows.”  – Motion of Destiny

 Which quote is your favorite?

EVERYDAY GREATNESS

Mahmoud Jajah introduced me to this book

” With stories from some of the world’s best known and loved writers, leaders, and celebrities, such as Maya Angelou, Jack Benny, and Henry David Thoreau, and insights and commentary from Stephen Covey, the Wrap Up and Reflections at the end of each chapter help create a project that can be used for group or personal study.”

I give you some quotes from this life-impacting book. Appreciate it!

1. “When I was a kid, only Batman had a cell phone. He had a car phone. I was like: Man, can you imagine having a car phone? But technology has not altered our lives, other than perhaps how we go about them. We are still in the position of waking up and having a choice: Do I make the world better today somehow, or do I not bother? – Tom Hanks
2. “It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?” – James Thurber
3. “Some can’t distinguish between been busy and been productive. They are human windmills, flailing at work, but actually accomplishing little.”
– Caroline Donnelly, Money
4. “In all strong characters, when one listens behind the scenes, one hears echoes of strife and contention. Nevertheless, far from being at loose ends within themselves, such persons have organized their lives around some supreme values and achieved a powerful concentration of purpose and drive.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick, On Being a Real Person
5. “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
6. “While it is well enough to leave footprints on the sands of time, it is even more important to make sure they point in a commendable direction.”
– James Branch Cabell
7. “Nothing is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.” – John McCain, Faith of My Fathers
8. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Theresa
9. “No man is so poor as to have nothing worth giving: as well might the mountain streamlets say they have nothing to give the sea because they are not rivers. Give what you have. To someone it may be better than you dare to think.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
10. “We all have something to give. So if you know how to read, find someone who can’t. If you’ve got a hammer, find a nail. If you’re not hungry, not lonely, not in trouble – seek out someone who is not.” – George H.W.Bush
11. “It may seem to you conceited to suppose that you can’t do anything important toward improving the lot of mankind. But this is a fallacy. You must believe that you can help bring about a better world. A good society is produced only by good individuals, just as truly as a majority in a presidential election is produced by the votes of single elections.”
– Bertrand Russell, A Philosophy for you in these times.
12. “Even a small star shines in the darkness.” – Finnish Proverb.
13. “I have always held firmly to the thought that each of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.” – Albert Schweitzer
14. “Whoever you are, there is some younger person who thinks you are perfect. There is some work that will never be done if you don’t do it. There is someone who would miss you if you were gone. There is a place that you alone can fill.” – Jacob M.Braude, Braude’s Source for Speakers and Writers.
15. “When I was around seven, we moved to New York. I was already studying the cello, and a couple of years later my parents my parents signed me up to take lessons from Leonard Rose. Leonard was a great cellist and a renowned teacher. Fortunately, he was also patient, because I was a very shy boy. When I listened to Leonard play, I thought, “How can you make such a gorgeous sound? How can anyone do that? But that’s not what music is about. Which he knew. What Leonard said was, “I’ve taught you many, but now you have to go off and learn on your own.” Because in fact the worst thing you can do is to say to yourself, “I want to be just like somebody else.” You have to absorb knowledge from someone else, but ultimately you have find to find your own voice.” – Yo-Yo Ma.
16. “Man’s earthly task is to realize his created uniqueness. As a Hasidic rabbi called Zusya put it on his deathbed: “In the world to come they will not ask me, ‘why were you not Moses?’ They will ask me, “Why were you not Zusya?” – Martin Buber, Time.
17. “We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.” – Helen Hayes, Our Best Years.
18. “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got a hold for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” – George Bernard Shaw, His Life and Works.
19. “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
20. “I shall pass through this life but once.
Any good, therefore, that I can do
Or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature,
Let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it,
For I shall not pass this way again
– Etienne De Grellet
21. “I want it said of me by those who know me best; that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower will grow.”
– Abraham Lincoln
22. “If you haven’t any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.” -Bob Hope
23. “I hear people say “Oh, if I were only rich, I would do great things to help people.” But we all can be rich in love and generosity. Moreover, if we give with care, if we find out the exact wants of those who need our help most, we are giving our own loving interest and concern, which is worth more than all the money in the world.” – Albert Schweitzer
24. “Nowadays, we think of a philanthropist as someone who donates big sums of money, yet the word is derived from two Greek words, philos (loving) and anthropos (man): loving man. All of us are capable of being philanthropists. We can give of ourselves.” – Edward Lindsay, Guideposts
25. “It is in spending oneself that one becomes rich.” Sarah Berndhardt
26. “The dead take to the grave, clutched in their hands, only what they have given away.” – De Witt Wallace
27. “I find life an exciting business – and most exciting when it’s lived for others.” – Hellen Keller
28. “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” -Dalai Lama
29. “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” – Arthur Ashe
30. “On the day after Mrs. Fosdick died, I saw Harry Emerson Fosdick’s religious faith, and I shall never forget it. My husband and I went to call on him. He was 86, and we expected to find him shattered by the loss of the wife he had cherished for more than 60 years. Instead, he met us with a smile. “Florence enjoyed good health, you know, right to the end,” he said. “I’m the one who had ailments, and I was afraid I’d die first and leave her alone. Now she’s gone, and I will be the one to face loneliness. I’m so thankful for that. This is something I can do for Florence.” – Nardi Reeder Campion
31. “To a woman who wrote me of the boredom that came into her life when her children were grown and gone from home, I replied: “In the past, your immediate family needed most of your time and strength. Now you can extend the range of your love. There are children in your neighbourhood who need understanding and friendship. There are aged people near you who are starved for companionship, blind people who cannot even enjoy the television you find so boring. Why not get out and find the joy of helping others? Weeks later, she wrote again: “I tried your prescription. It works! I have walked from night into day!” – The Rev. Billy Graham.
32. “The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.” – Gaylord Nelson, In the New York Times.
33. “Seldom can a heart be lonely if it seeks a lonelier still, self-forgetting, seeking only emptier cups to fill.” – Francis Ridley Havergal
34. “To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s won.” – Abraham Lincoln.
35. “The mass of men worry themselves into nameless graves while here and there a great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
36. “One kind word can warm three winter months.” – Japanese Proverb
37. “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa

CHECK YOUR CONDUCT AGAINST THE QUR’AN

From the year 2008, I used to go for monthly Al-Jumuah magazines from Al-Muntada Organization. Those magazines were filled with timeless pieces that touched on relevant issues on Islam and life as a whole. Unfortunately, that organization was blacklisted as a terrorist organization and the receipt of magazines ceased. There is this particular issue (Vol 2/issue 09/33) that touched on Ramadan. One of the pieces in that issue is this.  Unfortunately, I lost vital parts of that magazine to the June 3^rd, 2015 devastating rains. I have been able to save this. I therefore share! Enjoy!

 

When walking, walk in humility and peace
“And turn not your face away from men with pride, nor walk in insolence through the earth. Verily, Allah likes not any arrogant boaster.” (31:18) “And turn not your face away from men with pride, nor walk in insolence through the earth. Verily, Allah likes not any arrogant boaster.” (25:63)

When looking, control your gaze and guard your chastity
“Tell the believing men to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts. That is purer for them. Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what they do.” (24:30)

When with your parents, be kind and lower wings of humility before them
“And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And that you be dutiful to your parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of disrespect, nor reprimand them but address them in terms of honor.) (And lower unto them the wing of submission and humility through mercy, and say: “My Lord! Bestow on them Your mercy as they did bring me up when I was young.”) (17:24)

When with your spouse, let love  and Mercy define your relationship
“ And among His signs is this that He created for you wives from among yourselves, that you may find repose in them, and He has put between you affection and mercy. Verily, in that are indeed signs for a people who reflect.” (30:21)

When judging, evaluating and making decisions, be just and give each their due
 “Verily; Allah commands that you should render back the trusts to those, to whom they are due; and that when you judge between men, you judge with justice. Verily, how excellent is the teaching which He (Allah) gives you! Truly, Allah is Ever All-Hearer, All-Seer.” (4:58)

When dealing with other Muslims, treat them like brothers and sisters
“The believers are but a brotherhood. So make reconciliation between your brothers, and have Taqwa of Allah that you may receive mercy.”  (49:10)

 

When having fun, never put down any one
“O you who believe! Let not a group scoff at another group; it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor let (some) women scoff at other women, it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor defame yourselves, nor insult one another by nicknames. Evil is the name of wickedness after faith. And whosoever does not repent, then such are indeed wrongdoers.” (49:10)

When disagreeing on moral and religious matters, submit to the Prophet’ judgment
“But no, by your Lord, they can have no faith, until they make you judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission.”  (4:65)

When calling to Allah use wisdom and beautiful manners
“They will bear their own burdens in full on the Day of Resurrection, and also the burdens of those whom they misled without knowledge. Evil indeed is that which they shall bear.” (16:25)

When facing insult at the hands of the ignorant, say peace and forgive
“And the servants of the Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth with humility, and when the ignorant address them they say; “Peace” (25:63)
“Those who spend (in Allah’s cause) in prosperity and in adversity, who repress anger, and who pardon men; verily, Allah loves the Muhsinin (the good-doers)” (3:134)

 

When listening to the Qur’an, or when Allah is mentioned, check your heart.
“ The believers are only those who, when Allah is mentioned, feel a fear in their hearts and when His verses are recited unto them, they increase their faith; and they put their trust in their Lord.”  (8:2)      “Say: “Believe in it or do not believe (in it). Verily, those who were given knowledge before it, when it is recited to them, fall down on their chins (faces) in humble prostration.””  (17: 107-9)

When faced with grief and difficulty, look only to Allah’s mercy and be sure of it
“And whosoever has Taqwa of Allah, He will make a way for him to get out. And He will provide him from where he never could imagine. And whosoever puts his trust in Allah, then He will suffice him. Verily, Allah will accomplish his purpose. Indeed Allah has set a measure for all things.” (65:2-3)

When thinking and reflecting, think of Allah’s creation
“Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the Earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding. Those who remember Allah standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and think deeply about the creation of the heavens and the earth, (saying): “Our Lord! You have not created this without purpose, glory to You! Give us salvation from the torment of the Fire.”  (3:190-1)

When dealing with your enemies or those who hurt you still be just
“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to justice, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is closer to piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.” (5:8)

When facing danger and threat in a just cause, say ‘God is enough’
“Men said to them: ‘A great army is gathering against you’: And frightened them: But is (only) increased their Faith: They said: For us Allah suffices, and He is the best disposer of affairs.” (Hasbunallahu wa ‘ni’ mal wakil) (3:137)

When riding your car, let your heart and your tongue celebrate Allah’s favor
“In order that you may mount on their backs, and then may remember the favor of your Lord when you mount thereon, and say: “Glory to Him Who has subjected this to us, and we could have never had it.”(43:13)

At nights, when sleep is lovely, let your love of God exceed it
“Their sides forsake their beds, to invoke their Lord in fear and hope, and they spend out of what We have bestowed on them.” (32:16)

And in all affairs of life, fear Allah and be truthful
“O you who believe! Have Taqwa of Allah and speak (always) the truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, he has indeed achieved a great victory.”   (33:70-1)

 

 

 

 

IN ARROW OF GOD, ACHEBE SPOKE WORDS!

 

I love all Chinua Achebe’s works. The man has command over words. The thing which makes him stand apart in this regard his usage of complex language. He uses proverbs. And his proverbs are Africanized. His proverbs capture “the peppery and smoked-fish nuance orally archived by our ancestral sages and word-smiths” as Kweku Sakyi Addo described African proverbs. After reading the book for the second time, I decide to capture these proverbs or better still, wise sayings for you. Enjoy!

1. “Do you blame a vulture for perching over a carcass?”
2. “It is praiseworthy to be brave and fearless, my son, but sometimes it is better to be a coward. We often stand in the compound of a coward to point at the ruins where a brave man used to live. The man who has never submitted to anything will soon submit to the burial mat.”
3. “A man does not go to his in-law with wisdom.”
4. “A new wife should not come into an unfinished homestead.”
5. “No one eats numbers. But if we are many nobody will dare molest us and our daughters will hold their heads up in their husbands’ houses.”
6. “When a handshake goes beyond the elbow we know it has turned to another thing.”
7. “Wisdom is like a goatskin bag; every man carries his own.”
8. “I am an old man, and an old man is there to talk. If the lizard of the homestead should neglect to do the things for which its kind is known, it will be mistaken for the lizard of the farmland.”
9. “When an adult is in the house, the she-goat is not left to suffer the pangs of parturition on its tether.”
10. “Have we not heard that a boy sent by his father to steal does not go stealthily, but breaks the door with his feet?”
11. “When we hear a house has fallen do we ask if the ceiling fell with it?”
12. “When a man of cunning dies, a man of cunning buries him.”
13. “A toad does not run in the daytime unless something is after it.”
14. “The fly that has no one to advice it follows the corpse into the grave.”
15. “But let the slave who sees another cast into a shallow grave know that he will be buried in the same way when his day comes.”
16. “The man who carries a deity is not a king. He is there to perform his god’s ritual and carry sacrifice to him.”
17. “For when we see a bird dancing in the middle of the pathway we must know that its drummer is in the nearby bush.”
18. “The inquisitive monkey gets a bullet in the face.”
19. “The world is changing, I do not like it. But I’m like the bird Eneke-nti-oba. When his friends asked him why he was always on the wing, he replied “Men of today have learnt to shoot without missing and so I have learnt to fly without perching.”
20. “A coward may cover the ground with his words but when the time comes to fight, he runs away.”
21. “Unless the wind blows, we do not see the fowl’s rump.”
22. “A man who brings home ant-infested faggots should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him visits.”
23. “When a man sees an unfamiliar sight, then perhaps his death is coming.”
24. “The very thing which kills mother rat prevents its little ones from opening their eyes.”
25. “An old woman is never old when it comes to the dance she knows.”
26. “A man who knows his anus is small does not swallow an udala seed.”
27. “The man who sends a child to catch a shrew will also give him water to wash his hand.”
28. “When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”
29. “What a man does not know is greater than him.”
30. “Only a foolish man can go after a leopard with his bare hands.”
31. “The stranger will not kill his host with his visit. When he goes, may he not go with a swollen back.”
32. “A man may refuse to do what is asked of him but may not refuse to be asked.”
33. “The death that will kill a man begins as an appetite.”
34. “A man does not speak a lie to his son. Remember that always. To say ‘my father told me is to swear the greatest oath.’”
35. “He is a fool who treats a brother worse than a stranger.”
36. “May good confront the man on top and the man below. But let him who is jealous of another’s position choke with his envy.”
37. “The only medicine against palm wine is the power to say no.”
38. “The greatest liar among men still speaks the truth to his own son.”
39. “A man can swear before the most dreaded deity on what his father told him.”
40. “If a man is not sure of the boundary between his land and his neighbor, he tells his son.”
41. “Let us first chase away the wild cat afterwards we blame the cat.”
42. “A man always has more sense than his children. Those of you who think they are wiser than their father forget that it is from a man’s own stock of sense that he gives out to his sons. That is why a boy who tries to wrestle with his father gets blinded by the old man’s loin cloth.”
43. “A woman who began cooking before another must have more broken utensils.”
44. “When we old people speak, it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouth, it is because we see something which you do not see.”
45. “When an old woman stops in her dance, to point again and again in the same direction, we can be sure that somewhere there something happened long ago which touched the roots of her life.”
46. “In all great compounds, there must be people of all minds- some good, some bad, some fearless, and some cowardly, those who bring in wealth and those who scatter it, those who give good advice and those who only speak the words of palm wine. That is why we say that whatever tune you play in the compound of a great man there is always someone to dance to it.”
47. “Old age is a disease.”
48. “We do not by-pass a man and enter his compound.”
49. “The time a man wakes up is his morning.”
50. “We do not apply an ear-pick to the eye.”
51. “A man, who visits a craftsman at work, finds a sullen host.”
52. “Do we not say that the flute player must sometimes stop to wipe his nose?”
53. “The lizard who threw confusion into his mother’s funeral rite, did he expect outsiders to carry the burden of honoring his dead?”
54. “A man should hold his compound together, not plant dissension among his children.”
55. “A ripe maize can be told by merely looking at it.”
56. “The offspring of a hawk cannot fail to devour chicks.”
57. “A man does not talk when masked spirits speak.”
58. “The fly that perches on a mound of dung may strut around as it likes, it cannot move the mound.”
59. “When two brothers fight, a stranger reaps the harvest.”
60. “A disease that has never been seen before cannot be cured with everyday herbs.”
61. “A man who has nowhere else to put his hand for support puts it on his own knee.”
62. “A snake is never as long as the stick to which we liken its length.”
63. “A toad does not run in the daytime unless something is after it.”
64. “The unexpected beats even the man of valor.”
65. “Unless the penis dies young, it will surely eat bearded meat.”
66. “As soon as we shake hands with a leper, he will want an embrace.”
67. “The language of young men is always pull down and destroy but an old man speaks of conciliation.”
68. “When a masked spirit visits you, you have to appease its footprints with presents.”
69. “A fowl does not eat into the belly of a goat.”
70. “The eye is very greedy and will steal a look at something its owner has no wish to see.”
71. “Until a man wrestles with one of those who make a path across his homestead, the others will not stop.”
72. “Who would swallow phlegm for the fear of offending others?”
73. “A woman cannot place more than the length of her leg on her husband.”
74. “A traveler to distant places should not make enemies.”
75. “The young he-goat said that but for his sojourn in his mother’s clan, he would not have learnt to stick to his upper lip.”
76. “A man of sense does not go on hunting little bush rodents when his age-mates are after big game.”
77. “If the rat could not run fast enough, it must make way for the tortoise.”
78. “Our eye sees something; we take a stone and aim at it. But the stone rarely succeeds like the eye in hitting the mark.”
79. “Every lizard lies on its belly, so we cannot tell which has a bellyache.”
80. “When mother-cow is cropping giant grass, her calves watch her mouth.”
81. “A man might pick his way with the utmost care through a crowded market but find that the hem of his cloth had upset and broken another’s wares, in such a case, the man, not his cloth was held to repair the damage.”
82. “ I am the tortoise who was trapped in a pit of excrement for two whole markets; but when helpers came to haul him out on the eighth day, he cried “Quick, Quick, I can’t stand the stench.”
83. “The man to fear in action is the one who first submits to suffer the limit.”
84. “A man who asks questions does not lose his way.”
85. “He whose name is called again and again by those trying in vain to catch a wild bull has something he alone can do to bulls.”
86. “The little bird which hops off the ground and lands on an ant-hill may not know it but is still on the ground.”
87. “No man however great was greater than his people; no one ever won judgment against his people.”

 

Martin Luther King Jnr. Speaks !

In this book, i found unquantifiable amount of knowledge that i want to share. Please savor and relish these quotes from Martin Luther King Jnr.

1. “The mind is the standard of the man”
2. “A new age brings with it, new challenges.”
3. “Through our scientific genius, we have made of the world a neighborhood; now through our moral and spiritual genius we must make of it, a brotherhood. “
4. “If a man can write a better book, or preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse trap than his neighbor, even if he builds a house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
5. “ If we succumb to the temptation of using violence in our struggle for justice, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. “
6. “When we rise to love on the agape love, we love men not because we like them, not because their attitudes and ways appeal to us, but because God loves us. Here we rise to the position of loving the person who does this evil deed while hating the deed that person does. “
7. “There is something at the very center of our faith which reminds us that Good Friday may occupy the throne a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumphant beat of the drums of Easter. Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but one day that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D and B.C, so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by his name. There is something in this universe which justifies William Cullen Bryant in saying, “Truth crushed to the earth will rise again.” There is something in this universe that justifies James Russell Lowell in saying “ Truth forever on the scaffold

                                                Wrong forever on the throne

                                                Yet that scaffold sways the future

                                                And behind the dim unknown stands God

                                                With the shadows keeping watch above his own.”

8. “We Negroes have replaced self-pity with self-respect and self-depreciating with dignity. “
9. “It is an honor to face jail for a just cause.”
10. “Face violence if necessary, but refuse to return violence. If we respect those who oppose us, they may achieve a new understanding of the human relations involved. “
11. “Whenever there is the emergence of the new, we confront the recalcitrance of the old. “
12. “The greatest tragedy of physical slavery was that it led to mental slavery.”
13. “There is an amazing democracy about death. It is not aristocracy for some people, but a democracy for all of the people. Kings die and beggars die, rich men die and poor men die; old people die and young people die; death comes to the innocent and it comes to the guilty. Death is the irreducible common denominator of all men. “
14. “We can never assume that anyone understands. It is our job to keep people informed and aware.”
15. “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”
16. “Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government policy.”
17. “The calling to speak is often a vocation of agony but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate with our limited vision.”
18. “Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
19. “Like a boil that can never be cured as long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its pus-flowing ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must likewise be exposed with all of the tension its exposing creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured. “
20. “All that is said here grows out of a tragic misconception of time. It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills.
21. “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”
22. “We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without his hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.”
23. “But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before if the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I am meeting young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust. “
24. “But they have gone with the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. “
25. “The means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong or even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.”
26. “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”
27. “History has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive.”
28. “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
29. “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars need restructuring.”
30. “The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.”
31. “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today.”
32. “If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality and strength without sight.”
33. “When a people are mired in oppression, they realize deliverance only when they have accumulated the power to enforce change. The powerful never lose opportunities, they remain available to them. The powerless, on the other hand, never experience opportunity-it is always arriving at a later time.”
34. “We need organizations that are permeated with mutual trust, incorruptibility and militancy. Without this spirit, we may have numbers but they will add up to zero. We need organizations that are responsible, efficient and alert. We lack experience because ours is a history of disorganization. ”
35. “As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery.”
36. “And with a spirit straining toward true self-esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation and say to himself and to the world “I am a somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history. How painful and exploited that history has been. Yes I was a slave through my fore parents and I am not ashamed of that. I’m ashamed of the people who were so sinful to make me a slave. Yes, we must stand up and say “I’m black and I’m beautiful and this self-affirmation is the Black man’s need, made compelling by the white man’s curses against him.”
37. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing that demands of justice and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
38. “For through violence, you may murder a murderer but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.”
39. “But if physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children their children from a permanent life of psychological death, then nothing could be more honorable.”
40. “I would rather be a free pauper than a rich slave. I would rather die in abject poverty with my convictions than live in inordinate riches with the lack of self-respect.”
41. “Whatever career you may choose for yourself-doctor, lawyer, teacher; let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man. Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in.”
42. “The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But the way of non-violence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.”
43. “There is more power in socially organized masses on the march than there is in guns in the hands of a few desperate men.”
44. “Reason, devoid of purifying power of faith, can never free itself from distortions and rationalizations.”
45. “I had also learned that the inseparable twin of racial injustice is economic injustice.”
46. “Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about, the slums that damn them , the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.”
47. “Men are not easily moved from their mental ruts or purged off their prejudiced and irrational feelings.”
48. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
49. ‘’One of the sure signs of maturity is the ability to rise to the point of self-criticism.”
50. “We must constantly stimulate our youth to rise above the stagnant level of mediocrity and seek to achieve excellence in their various fields of endeavor. Doors are opening now that were not open in the past, and the great challenge facing minority groups is to be ready to enter the doors as they open. No greater tragedy could befall us at this hour but that of allowing new opportunities to emerge without the concomitant preparedness to meet them.”
51. “We must seek to do our life’s work so well that nobody could do it better.”
52. “Yes, friend, my feet is real tired, but my soul is rested.”
53. “There is no greater power on earth than an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo
54. “Because this struggle is complex, there is no place in it for the frivolous or rowdy. Knowledge and discipline are indispensable as courage and self-sacrifice. Hence the forging of priceless qualities of character is taking place daily as a high moral goal is pursued.”
55. “They are however, relatively few because this is a form of escape in which the flight from responsibility imposes even greater responsibility or risks.”
56. “Nonviolence offers a method by which they can fight the evil with which they cannot live. It offers a unique weapon which without firing a single bullet, disarms the adversary. It exposes his moral defenses, weakens his morale, and at the same time works on his conscience.”
57. “From a purely moral point of view, an unjust law is one that is out of harmony with the moral law of the universe. More concretely, an unjust law is one in which the minority is compelled to observe a code that is not binding on the majority. An unjust law is one in which people are required to obey a code that they had no part in making because they were denied the right to vote.”
58. “Our image abroad reflects our behavior at home.”
59. “I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see.

I sought my God, but he eluded me.

I sought my brother, and I found all three.”

60. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives in the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country.”
61. “History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by , the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
62. “An unjust law is no law at all.” -St.Augustine.
63. “One who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly (not hatefully as the white mothers did in New Orleans when they were seen on television screaming “nigger, nigger, nigger”) and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is in reality expressing the very highest respect for the law.”
64. “We can never forget everything Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal”. It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.”
65. “If you get that impression, you are the victim of an illusion wrapped in superficiality.”