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Chapters Twenty-Four–Twenty-Five
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Things Fall Apart

 Chinua Achebe
 

Important Quotations Explained

 
1. Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
 
 
2. And at last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground. Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm.
 
 
3. Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
 
 
4. He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
 
 
5. “Does the white man understand our custom about land?” “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
 
 
 
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