15 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes To Live By
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15 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes To Live By

"You have to let yourself be."

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15 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quotes To Live By
Africa 39

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer who has published critically-acclaimed novels such as “Americanah,” "Purple Hibiscus," and “Half of a Yellow Sun.” Her works deal primarily with immigration, stereotypes, race, and self-discovery. Through her works, Adichie has become a strong advocate for opposing gender roles as well as encouraging individuals to accept and express their uniqueness. Adichie’s wisdom and insight continuously inspire readers to accept themselves for who they are as well as to acknowledge the impact and greater-good that we can bring to the world.


1. "The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."

2. "Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity."

3. "You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be."

4. "Our histories cling to us. We are shaped by where we come from."

5. "If we do something over and over, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over, it becomes normal."

6. "I often make the mistake of thinking that something that is obvious to me is just as obvious to everyone else."

7. "There was something wrong with her. She did not know what it was but there was something wrong with her. A hunger, a restlessness. An incomplete knowledge of herself. The sense of something farther away, beyond her reach."

8. "Gender matters everywhere in the world. And I would like today to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: We must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently."

9. "There are people who dislike you because you do not dislike yourself."

10. "We do not just risk repeating history if we sweep it under the carpet, we also risk being myopic about out present."

11. "Love is the most important. The most necessary human emotion. Not just romantic love. Love. The ability of human beings to connect."

12. "I am a person who believes in asking questions, in not conforming for the sake of conforming. I am deeply dissatisfied - about so many things, about injustice, about the way the world works - and in some ways, my dissatisfaction drives my storytelling."

13. "These are little things but sometimes it's the little things that sting the most."

14. "But race is not biology; race is sociology. Race is not genotype; race is phenotype. Race matters because of racism. And racism is absurd because it's about how you look. Not about the blood you have. It's about the shape of your nose and the kink of your hair."

15. "Teach her never to universalize her own standards or experiences. Teach her that her standards are for her alone, and not for other people. This is the only necessary form of humility: the realization that difference is normal."

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