Africa

Explore 72 quotes by people from Africa

Do not set your heart on wealth…
Do not strain to seek increase,
What you have, let it suffice you.
If riches come by theft,
They will not stay the night with you….
They made themselves wings like geese,
And flew away to the sky.

Amenemope

More information about this quote

Topic

Detachment from wealth Wealth

Author

Amenemope

Source

The Instruction of Amenemope

Genre

Wisdom literature

Statement Type

Advice

Language

Egyptian/Hieroglypics

Time

1075 BC 1070s BC 11th century BC

Era

Egyptian New Kingdom

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Amenemope. The Instruction of Amenemope. 11 century BC.

Current Citation

Amenemope. "The Instruction of Amenemope." The Literature of Ancient Egypt, edited by William Kelly Simpson, translated by Robert T. K. Ritner, William Kelly Simpson, Vincent A. Tobin, and Edward F. Wente, Jr. Yale University Press, 2003.

The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.

Wole Soyinka

More information about this quote

Topic

Political courage Tyranny

Author

Wole Soyinka

Source

The Man Died: Prison Notes

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Soyinka, Wole. "A Letter to Compatriots." The Man Died: Prison Notes. Harper & Row/Rex Collings Limited, 1972.

Art allows you to imbue the truth with a sort of magic, so it can infiltrate the psyches of more people, including those who don't believe the same things as you.

Wangechi Mutu

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of art Art

Speaker

Wangechi Mutu

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Mutu, Wangechi. Quoted in 33 Artists in 3 Acts, written by Sarah Thornton. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014, p. 59. Originally an interview with Sarah Thornton, c. 2013.

The liberal must understand that the days of the Noble Savage are gone; that the blacks do not need a go-between in this struggle for their own emancipation. No true liberal should feel any resentment at the growth of black consciousness. Rather, all true liberals should realize that the place for their fight for justice is within their white society.

Steve Biko

More information about this quote

Topic

Noble savage Black freedom struggle Anti-colonialism

Author

Steve Biko

Source

Black Souls in White Skins?

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1970 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Biko, Steve. "Black Souls in White Skins?" SASO newsletter, July/August 1970.

Current Citation

Biko, Steve. "Black Souls in White Skins?" I Write What I Like: Selected Writings, edited by Aelred Stubbs. University of Chicago Press, 2002.

You will never be free until we are free.

Desmond Tutu

Read the full transcript of this interview at PBS.org

More information about this quote

Topic

Interconnectedness of all people Liberation Freedom

Speaker

Desmond Tutu

Source

Bill Moyers' Journal

Medium

Interview TV program

Language

English

Time

1999 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tutu, Desmond. "Bill Moyers Talks with Archbishop Desmond Tutu." Bill Moyers Journal. PBS, 27 Apr. 1999.

Be cheerful while you are alive.

Ptahhotep

The Maxims of Ptahhotep

Buy a book containing The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep at Amazon Buy a book containing The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep at Amazon
Read The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Positive attitude

Author

Ptahhotep

Source

The Maxims of Ptahhotep

Genre

Wisdom literature

Statement Type

Advice

Language

Egyptian/Hieroglypics

Time

2375 BC 2370s BC 24th century BC

Era

Egyptian Middle Kingdom

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Ptahhotep. The Maxims of Ptahhotep. c. 2375, maxim 34.

All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.

Plotinus

Enneads

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning

Author

Plotinus

Source

Enneads

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

270 270s 3rd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plotinus. The Six Enneads. c. 270, bk. 2, treatise 3.

Current Citation

Plotinus. The Enneads, edited by Lloyd P. Gerson, translated by George Boys-Stones, et. al. Cambridge University Press, 2018, bk. 2, treatise 3.

One who is serious all day will never have a good time, while one who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.

Ptahhotep

The Maxims of Ptahhotep

Buy a book containing The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep at Amazon Buy a book containing The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep at Amazon
Read The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Balance

Author

Ptahhotep

Source

The Maxims of Ptahhotep

Genre

Wisdom literature

Language

Egyptian/Hieroglypics

Time

2375 BC 2370s BC 24th century BC

Era

Egyptian Middle Kingdom

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Ptahhotep. The Maxims of Ptahhotep. c. 2375, maxim 25.

Man is a child of the customs and the things he has become used to. He is not the product of his natural disposition and temperment. The conditions to which he has become accustomed, until they have become for him a quality of character and matters of habit and custom, have replaced his natural disposition.

Ibn Khaldun

More information about this quote

Topic

Custom and convention

Author

Ibn Khaldun

Source

The Muqaddimah

Language

Arabic

Time

1377 1370s 14th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Khaldun, Ibn. مقدّمة ابن خلدون [The Muqaddimah]. 1377, bk. 1, ch. 2, sect. 5.

Education is... A two-edged sword that can be used either for the progress of mankind or for its destruction.

Haile Selassie I

More information about this quote

Topic

Downsides of education Education Human destructiveness

Speaker

Haile Selassie I

Medium

Speech

Genre

Commencement address

Language

Amharic

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Selassie, Haile. University graduation speech. 2 July 1963, University of Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Even women and children and those with no aptitude for speculation can attain to a complete religion, for all men are on an equal footing as far as knowledge derived from the senses is concerned. Praised be God who in his wisdom ordered things thus.

Saadia Gaon

More information about this quote

Topic

Equality

Author

Saadia Gaon

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Judeo-Arabic

Time

933 930s 10th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gaon, Saadia. كتاب الأمانات والاعتقادات [The Book of Beliefs and Opinions]. c. 933, introduction.

Current Citation

Gaon, Saadia. The Book of Beliefs and Opinions. Yale University Press, 1989, introduction.

There are no races: there is nothing in the world that can do all we ask race to do for us.

Kwame Anthony Appiah

More information about this quote

Topic

Race

Author

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. Methuen/Oxford University Press, 1992, ch. 2.