Happy 80th Wole Soyinka! Read A Few of His Famous Quotes

So yesterday, Sunday 13th July 2014, Nigerian playwright, poet and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka is 80!

Wole Soyinka has been an inspiration to many with his stellar creative books, inspiring words, and speaking out about issues concerning the nation.

To celebrate his 80th, here are a few of his famous quotes;

“Well, some people say I’m pessimistic because I recognize the eternal cycle of evil. All I say is, look at the history of mankind right up to this moment and what do you find?”

“Romance is the sweetening of the soul, With fragrance offered by the stricken heart.”

“See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome.”

“Human life has meaning only to that degree and as long as it is lived in the service of humanity.”


“I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wished we’d never smelled the fumes of petroleum.”

“African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance.”

“We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where.”

“Seven is the magic figure, because that’s a symbolic figure of my favorite deity, Ogun.”

“For me, justice is the prime condition of humanity.”

“I cannot belong to a nation which permits such barbarities as stoning to death and amputation – I don’t care what religion it is.”

“History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice.”

“Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped.”

“I don’t know any other way to live but to wake up every day armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.”

“One has a responsibility to clean up one’s space and make it livable as far as one’s own resources go. That includes not only material resources, but psychological resources: the commitment of time and a portion of your mind to something when you’d rather be doing something else.”

“You cannot live a normal existence if you haven’t taken care of a problem that affects your life and affects the lives of others, values that you hold which in fact define your very existence.”

Wish Soyina a happy 80th and if you have any of your favourite quotes, please share below.