Hampate Ba Quotes

#1. A "divine people" lives in a world in which it is the born persecutor of all other weaker species, or the born victim of all other stronger species. Only the rules of the animal kingdom can possibly apply to its political destinies.

Hannah Arendt

#2. Speak for yourself and from yourself, or be silent.

George Henry Lewes

#3. Every old man that dies is a library that burns.

Amadou Hampate Ba

#4. Whenever an elder dies, a library burns down.

Amadou Hampate Ba

#5. It was quite a different sort of thing, a sentiment distinct and independent. Mrs. Weston was the object of a regard which had its basis in gratitude and esteem. Harriet would be loved as one to whom she could be useful. For Mrs. Weston there was nothing to be done; for Harriet every thing.

Jane Austen

#6. And the Dwarf, hearing the names given in his own ancient tongue, looked up and met her eyes; and it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and understanding. Wonder came into his face, and then he smiled in answer.

J.R.R. Tolkien

#7. In Africa, when an old man dies, it's a library burning.

Amadou Hampate Ba

#8. As bees extract honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so sensible men often get advantage and profit from the most awkward circumstances.

Plutarch

#9. Writing is one thing and knowledge is another. Writing is the photographing of knowledge, but it is not knowledge itself. Knowledge is a light which is within man. It is the heritage of all the ancestors knew and have transmitted to us as seed, just as the mature baobab is contained in its seed.

Amadou Hampate Ba